
Class. 
Book. 



< \5*r 



JJL 



IA-2. 



Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 




AMY, THE STOLEN WIFE. 
"I will never believe this sweet face is a mask 
hiding a hypocritical soul." — Her Husband. 



AMY 
THE STOLEN WIFE 

A TRUE LOVE STORY. 



COMBINED WITH MEDICAL FACTS OF 

IMPORTANCE MENTALLY AND 

PHYSIOLOGICALLY 



PROOFS OF THE DOMINATION OVER A 

NONRESISTANT BY POSITIVE 

MALEVOLENT PEOPLE 



BY CHARLES McCORMICK, M. D. 

AUTHOR OF "NEUROLOGY AND METAPHYSICS," 

"SYNOPSIS OF NEUROLOGY," "OPTICAL TRUTHS," 

ETC. EDITOR, "MATURE MEDICINE." 



Published by 

McCORMICK MEDICAL COLLEGE, 

CHICAGO, 1910. 






y\* 



COPYRIGHT, 1910, 
BY THE AUTHOR. 



©CLA273649 



The Cause is Greater 
than the Individual 



PRELIMINARY. 



If this book only accomplishes a modicum of its 
object it will have satisfied me for the effort. 

The distressing circumstances which have made 
necessary the publication of personal affairs, with 
the names of those involved, will appear in the 
narrative. 

That the dereliction of my wife has been in- 
voluntary; that without being insane in the slightest 
degree, as the word is understood popularly, her 
mind has been dominated, through her sympathetic 
nature, by others, in a most diabolical manner, to 
"gratify their malevolent spirits. I believe as firmly 
as I believe in the purity of her character. 

The persistence with which a lie has been adhered 
to has forced the use of plain language, sometimes 
spoken or written to her, but always intended for 
those who dominated her. 

Readers will send me their opinions of all the 
characters portrayed in this book and I will print 
another, a sequel to this one, which will afford op- 
portunity for all who have an interest in the sup- 
pression of people of classes "C" and "D", and for 
those who desire to express themselves briefly and 
to the point with reference to the author and his 

subjects. rp, • A ,, 

J The Author. 

Chicago, September 9, 1910. 



EMOTIONS. 

The greatest misfortune which ever befell 
humanity was the substitution of the artificial 
for the natural. 

The two most striking exemplifications of 
this assertion are found in religion and medicine. 
The first has polluted mentalities ; the second 
has infected bodies for ages. As a dual mon- 
strosity it has tyrannized the world with prom- 
ises it has failed to keep and threats it executed 
without stint. 

Knowledge and education are as different as 
Nature and man. To acquire the first each in- 
dividual must study fundamental principles and 
utilize them at all times, upon all questions. 
The second is a superficial thing, proved by the 
readiness with which it is forgotten. We are 
all so affected by education that even the most 
natural among us exhibits radical symptoms 
often. It is so difficult to establish a line be- 
tween the natural and artificial it will not be at- 
tempted here. No recital of human experiences 
could be all on the one side ; hence this story 
is of things as seen and understood by the per- 
sons involved and it is the unvarnished truth so 
far as one person is capable of telling it. 

Mental sensations have been enumerated: 



THE STOLEN WIFE 



Pleasure, grief, love, hate, hope, disappointment, 
fear, etc., which confuse the rational and culti- 
vate the romantic. There are really but four 
classes of emotions, and, for convenience, 
these are put in diagramatic form, with the four 
principal symptoms of each appended: 



Good 
Class "A" 



Fair 
Class U B" 



Medium 
Class "C" 



Bad 

Class "D" 



"Amiable 
Thoughtful 
Considerate 

^Sympathetic 

'Philosophic 

Impulsive 

Just 

.Courageous 
'Indifferent 

Erratic 

Vain 
.Boastful 
^Jealous 

Envious 

Malevolent 
.Hypocritical 

It should not be understood that there are 
but four classes of people, because there are as 
many varieties of mentalities as there are of 
physical bodies ; but, as the physical conforms 



THE STOLEN WIFE 7 

in a general way to anatomical laws, so the mental 
conforms in a general way to metaphysical laws, 
with the difference that environment affects 
the mental more scandalously. 

Taking the classifications as given : The first 
is the best and the weakest. It is always liable 
to infection and imposition from; association, 
particularly from the bad, because the good are 
so good they cannot see badness unless it is 
pointed out to them (and sometimes not then), 
and the bad make it their business to point from 
themselves. The second is the most practical 
and successful, possessing enough of the other 
characteristics to know how to meet the medium 
and bad and win ; but such are in danger of los- 
ing with the first class, because the third and 
fourth usually make marks of the second, who 
often overvalue the qualities of the first. The 
third is nearly always third; one may be as- 
sisted to the second position, but is more liable 
to be lead by the more positive fourth class and 
suffer the fate of the "old dog Tray/' The 
fourth is always bad. 

In classifying people, how r ever, the physio- 
logical conditions of the body must be consid- 
ered, because there is that interdependence be- 
tween the mental and physiological which makes 
the disorders of one involve the other as surely 
as both exist, and disorder in either department 
tends to lower the class of both. It does not 



8 THE STOLEN WIFE 

follow that one so lowered cannot regain good 
standing in his or her proper class. 

Since Nature has endowed humanity with 
mental capacity superior to other animals, it be- 
comes a duty for each one of us to cultivate our 
talents and render assistance to others in culti- 
vating theirs ; because, when , we shall have 
reached the condition in which self-respect is 
supreme we will be -what Nature intended; not 
before. 

If there were no artificial codes, ordinances, 
customs, prejudices, and if the simple principles 
of Nature had been studied and taught instead, 
classes "A" and "B" would number millions 
and the other two would be in a hopeless minor- 
ity. Unhappily, under existing conditions they 
comprise a very large majority. A more de- 
tailed description of each class will not be amiss, 
in view of the importance of the subject: 

It should be remembered always that a state 
of mind may be real or simulated. Hence the 
necessity for a standard by which to analyze 
people as well as other subjects. 

Examining the definitions of the four words 
describing class "A" in the diagram we find: 
"Amiable" means "friendly, lovely, worthy of 
love, deserving of affection" ; also, "pretending 
to love, pretending friendship." "Thought" is 
"meditation, design, intention, development of 
ideas" ; and these may be good or bad, for 



THE STOLEN WIFE 9 

class "A" is human and is susceptible to influ- 
ences from the other three classes. "Consider- 
ate" is defined as "discreet, prudent, deliberate, 
serious"; but, under the influence of one of the 
other classes even "A" might slip and be indis- 
creet,, imprudent, hasty, foolish. The definition of 
the next word exposes the weak characteristic 
of this class which is utilized by all the others 
either with good intent or with malice toward 
their victim or toward others who can be favored 
or punished by sacrificing this one. "Sympa- 
thetic" means, "feeling in consequence of what 
another feels ; to be affected by feelings similar 
to those exhibited by another, in consequence of 
knowing the person to be thus affected ; an agree- 
ment of affections or inclinations or a con- 
formity of natural temperament which makes 
two persons pleased with each other; kindness 
of feeling toward one who suffers ; pity ; com- 
miseration ; an involuntary susceptibility to dom- 
ination by more positive temperaments." 

One of the characters in this story exhibits 
class "A" in her face and in her general conduct 
(with this exception.) She has done this uni- 
formly for more than six years under my ob- 
servation. Therefore I am sure she has been 
dominated most cruelly in this affair by those 
whose conditions excited her sympathy to the 
point where she became indiscreet, imprudent, 
hasty, and, finally, foolish. It is not her nature 



10 THE STOLEN WIFE 

to be treacherous, cruel, sneaky, gossipy, slan- 
derous, tricky. Yet she has done all of these 
things, as the story will show in its course. She 
has been in the company of those who, being of 
a lower order, iind pleasure in making others un- 
happy. One of the lowest type, her sister, inocu- 
lated her mind with hatred for her own brother 
with the chief object in view of punishing me 
because she could 'not dominate me and my work 
as she had always been permitted to dominate 
those of her family with whom she came in con- 
tact. When matters came to a climax she was 
astonished, as she has confessed through her 
victim; but it only made her all the more vindic- 
tive and she sought and received the aid of 
others of her class and of class "C" whom she 
found among her relatives and my own — people 
I have always been good to. Xever in my life 
have I seen so positive a demonstration of 
thought transference and the domination of one 
person's will by another. I refuse to believe the 
sweet face, shown as the frontispiece of this 
book, is a mask covering a hypocritical soul. I 
will go to my grave believing in her goodness. I 
hold naught against her. because analysis of the 
situation protects her even against her own as- 
sertions to the contrary. The reader will see in 
the narrative how she wavered at times and how 
nearly I won her; and. I am sure will see her as 



THE STOLEN WIFE 11 

I see her and will rejoice with me if I win yet, 
dark as the prospect appears. 

Class "B" analyzed according to the four 
subdivisions shows : "Philosophic" is literally 
"love of truth as found in Nature," hence one 
who studies along natural lines is more or less of 
a philosopher as he applies himself much or lit- 
tle; "Impulsive" is "sudden action on the 
strength of having been prepared for an emer- 
gency; or, acting unexpectedly from, an impres- 
sion on the mind which interferes with delibera- 
tion" ; hence many acts of such are unwise, but 
it does not follow all are; "Just," "rendering or 
disposed to render to each one his due; a desire 
to be equitable ; conforming to reasonable ex- 
pectations ; orderly, accurate, sincere" ; "Cour- 
ageous," "a quality of mind which combines 
magnanimity w T ith fearlessness; resolute, daring, 
enterprising, persistent." This class constitute 
the nourishing and operative systems of society. 
It is not unnatural that they exhibit the symp- 
toms of classes "C" and "D" often, because they 
are thrown in contact so much. It is they who do 
things. It is their sacrifices which enable the 
others to survive. They receive few thinks 
and many kicks and learn finally to expect little 
else. They do not appreciate the former particu- 
larly and would be entirely satisfied to be re- 
lieved of the latter. They do appreciate the 
benediction conferred by the companionship of 



12 THE STOLEN WIFE 

class "A" because the better side of their natures 
is brought out by that comiradeship and they 
gladly afford such companions homes and sus- 
tenance, feeling fully repaid in enjoying 
the embodiment of peace, content and 
goodness, after the necessary hours of 
business strain are over. They do not 
measure success with a dollar mark, yet 
some of them accumulate a goodly share of 
the "long green." They are liable to undertake 
too heavy loads and are not, therefore, always 
companionable to those who do not realize the 
responsibilities they carry, hence they invite 
criticism, under present conditions in which the 
crime of ignorance prevails and is all the worse 
because so few recognize its presence. If proof 
is wanted ask the next hundred persons you meet 
some question of importance which you know 
must require study before any opinion could 
be worth much. You will get positive replies 
from ninety per cent. Doctors have more of 
this nonsense to contend with than almost any 
other sort — <save and except always the "butt- 
in-ski" family. People have no hesitancy in in- 
terfering, even where lives are at stake, setting 
their opinions against those who have been 
trained in essentials of which the laity know 
nothing; hence it is not surprising that some de- 
light in destroying the happiness of those around 
them. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 13 

Class "C": "Indifferent/' "neither particu- 
larly good nor very bad ; careless ; negligent ; 
passable; mediocre; easily influenced and often 
made the tool of the lower class to accomplish 
malevolent ends"; "Erratic," "having no certain 
course; deviating in opinion to be agreeable to 
whomi they are with ; a rogue ; one who wanders 
from the paths of rectitude and usually has 
church affiliations as a cover"; "Vain/' "proud 
of petty things ; elated with a high opinion of 
one's own accomplishments, as in 'society' ; 
showy ; ostentatious ; false ; deceitful" ; "Boast- 
ful," "giving expression to vanity in language." 
This is a dangerous class, not only to society 
generally but to itself individually, because, be- 
ing without good judgment, it often places itself 
in positions where those of class "D," who are 
absolutely without scruples, can command them. 
This story pictures one of this class and how her 
weakness was taken advantage of by another. 

Class "D" : "Jealous," "painful apprehen- 
sion of rivalship in cases affecting one's happi- 
ness ; suspicious ; uneasy through fear that good 
will, interest, affection, or the like, as belonging 
to one's self be transferred to another (dogs 
exhibit this) ; pained by suspicions of prefer- 
ence given to another" ; "Envious," "repining 
or feeling uneasiness at a view of the excellence, 
prosperity or happiness of another" ; "Malevo- 
lent," "ill disposed; spiteful; rejoicing in the 



14 THE STOLEN WIFE 

misfortune of others; vile; implacable" ; "Hypo- 
critical," "proceeding from an outward show of 
virtue and piety; dissembling ; attempting to con- 
ceal one's real motives or character; prating of 
'conscience/ " This class is all bad, but, in some 
respects is not so dangerous as class "C," be- 
cause their badness is so apparent, often, that 
their schemes are frustrated. Sooner or later 
they will meet their deserts, if the example I 
have set in this book concerning some of them is 
emulated by others who have suffered and who 
will suffer from their malevolence. No family 
ties, no sentiment of any sort should be allowed 
to protect them. If it becomes generally known 
that Publicity will be given to gossips and busy- 
bodies, male and female, and that they will be 
accorded the scorn they deserve, they will be 
less liable to ply their vocations. 



MINDS AXD BODIES. 

The four grand divisions of human physi- 
ology are the brain, thoracic organs, abdominal 
viscera and the procreative apparatus. The 
functions of each, their relationship to each 
other, their collective and individual influence 
upon the mentality and the effects of the emo- 
tions upon them constitute a quadrality of sub- 
jects which affords to students an inexhaustible 
topic. They should be considered first from the 
standpoint of ideal normality. The student 
should not permit himself to be hampered by 
codes, dogmas, or any other handicap. He 
should accept no "authority" save Nature,, as 
She exhibits Her laws to him, physically, in 
manners susceptible of mathematical proof. 

When one begins with the laws of light, 
which exhibit chemically and mechanically, one 
is more able to comprehend the designs of the 
Great Mentality to which we ascribe the origin 
of all things natural. Of course there are limi- 
tations to what we shall learn; this is proved to 
us physically by finding the limitations of natu- 
ral laws, which are the points at which they re- 
verse themselves; but, by endowing us with ca- 
pacity and opportunities for investigation. Na- 



16 THE STOLEN WIFE 

ture voluntarily tendered Her whole plan for 
our scrutiny. 

In a single individual the brain ranks first., 
because therein lies the connection between the 
Great Mentality and the body: also because the 
brain controls, involuntarily and voluntarily, 
all other departments of the physiological appar- 
atus. Therefore the pathology of mentalities is 
of paramount importance. The causes may be 
mental or physical, or both. If the physiology 
of the physical body becomes disordered that of 
the mentality will be involved in exactly the 
proportions of the affinities between them. The 
reverse is equally true. When anyone "catches" 
the "smallpox." or any other "contagious" 
"disease," after "exposure," it is a typical ex- 
hibit of the relationship existing between the 
mental and physical bodies. When one is "ex- 
posed" and does not know it. yet develops the 
"disease/' 1 it only proves that he was about to 
exhibit effects of his condition and the "expos- 
ure" was only coincidental, because hundreds of 
persons who were "exposed" at the same time 
proved "immune." Infection, by vaccination, 
for example, leaves little or nothing for the 
mentality to do. It is purely a physical, chemi- 
cal proposition, fraught with ten thousand times 
the danger of any "contagion." The physio- 
logical conduct of the brain, with the mentality 
eliminated for the present, is a marvelous ex- 




'Home is not Home without Her." 



THE STOLEN WIFE 17 

hibit of chemistry and mechanics as they are 
demonstrated in the composition of the matter, 
the arrangement of the lobes, ventricles and 
subsidiary apparatus, the connections with the 
rest of the body by way of the lymphatics, blood 
vessels, nerves and connective tissue. 

The lungs and heart are, respectively, chem- 
ico-mechanical and purely mechanical. They are 
known as "vital" organs, because when either 
ceases work death ensues. They are subjects 
for pathological consideration: the lungs direct- 
ly, for mechanical obstruction or chemical in- 
fection may put them out of commission ; the 
heart indirectly, because its exhibits are entirely 
dependent on the nerve supply to its muscles 
from the storage battery in the brain. "Heart 
disease" is a "bogie" which has been employed 
to frighten susceptible people so long the doc- 
tors have come to believe the story themselves, 
without a particle of reason for it. Strychnine 
and other poisons have been administered to 
"stimulate" hearts when they have shown ir- 
regularity or "weakness." It is as foolish as is 
cutting muscles of the eyes to straighten cross- 
eyes, when the whole trouble is in the amount 
and distribution of the nerve supply. Doctors 
who do either of these things prove their ignor- 
ance of anatomy and physiology, of chemistry 
and mechanics. 

The abdominal organs comprise the entire di- 



13 THE STOLEN WIFE 

gestive and egestive apparatus so far as the mat- 
ter of sustenance is concerned directly, and they 
are the seat of more exhibits, pathologically, 
than any other department; but their primary 
causes are found frequently in parts quite re- 
mote therefrom. For this reason people who are 
not familiar with anatomy and physiology 
should never attempt to treat themselves save 
under the advice of a competent physician. Many 
apparently trifling exhibits may mean serious 
prospects unless the causes are arrested timely. 
As a matter of precaution every family should 
have an arrangement with a neurologist to ex- 
amine its members from time to time and ren- 
der whatever advice is found necessary in 
order to maintain the highest standard of 
health. A neurologist is not only a physician 
but a metaphysician. 

The procreative apparatus is second in im- 
portance only to the brain, because, upon its 
development and control depend not only the 
mental and physiological health of the individ- 
ual, but of his and her progeny. This is a sub- 
ject of which physician and layman are as ig- 
norant, or more ignorant than they are of the 
mentality. It is one on which has been placed 
the seal of disapproval of investigation by ec- 
clesiastical and medical "authorities/' for the 
very obvious purpose of preying on the credulity 
of the masses mercenarily ; the first to promote 



THE STOLEN WIFE 19 

marriages and fees ; the second to promote sex 
diseases and fees. That they are unreliable "au- 
thorities" is proved by the facts that they rep- 
resent two professions, the only ones, which are 
split into factions which are at constant war with 
each other, and they are the victims of their 
own ignorance of sex matters, even while profit- 
ing by the ignorance of their victims. 

It is proposed to show here the criminality 
of ignorance, the reprehensibility of education 
along "accepted" lines, the contemptibility of 
laziness in the matter of investigation, the truths 
of natural laws and their workings. 

The mania for operations upon women has 
been raging for many years, to the profit of the 
surgeons and the distress of their victims, yet 
the craze is growing. The following statistics 
of one hundred cases operated in the hospitals 
of Broca and St. Louis, in Paris, France, were 
printed in an American medical journal some 
years ago, hence are "regular" : The entire hun- 
dred were ovariotomies. The results were that 
78 per cent suffered notable loss of memory. 
60 per cent with flashes of heat and vertigo. 
50 per cent change of character, more irritable. 
42 per cent mentally depressed. 
10 per cent verged upon melancholia. 
75 per cent diminished sex desires. 
35 per cent became abnormally fat. 
12 per cent noted chanee to coarse voices. 
15 per cent exhibited skin affections. 
25 per cent periodical headaches. 



20 THE STOLEN WIFE 

25 per cent developed nightmare. 

5 per cent suffered from insomnia. 
13 per cent were not relieved of the trouble for 
which they were operated. 

Thus we find that 423 new ills were developed 
by the operations, or four and one-third for 
each victim. Still the Mayos and the Murphys 
continue to cut and slash, and the women con- 
tinue to march up to .the slaughter. 

Neurology is a mature system of practice 
which has been developed unostentatiously dur- 
ing the past twenty years. It has eliminated 
drugs and all operations save those necessitated 
by accidents and a few cases in which it may 
become necessary to sacrifice a part to save the 
rest of the body. It has developed a system 
of nerve measurements by which cases are ana- 
lyzed instead of diagnosed. It straightens cross- 
eyes without operation. It has developed the 
chemistry of food and prescribes the essential 
elements for body nourishment in the forms 
Nature combined them — it took fifteen years' 
work to develop this alone. It reaches causes 
and removes them. It has done many other 
things to make a system broad enough to take 
in everything chemical and mechanical, physi- 
cal and metaphysical. It has no quarrel with any 
sect of medicine. It teaches mental therapy, os- 
teotherapy, hydrotherapy, and even old-school 
drug therapy in addition to its own, for the sake 
of comparison. Our profession is our religion. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 21 

We minister to the mind as well as to the body. 
We meet puzzles. . We solve nearly all of them. 
The physiological ones are easy. The mental 
ones are not, because there are so many "bad" 
ones who work against us insiduously and gloat 
over their successes publicly, as will be shown in 
this book. 

The sex teachings of McCormick Medical Col- 
lege, to which reference will be made in the 
course of this narrative, merit a word of expla- 
nation : 

With us "sex" diseases are distinguished from 
"venereal" diseases because they are ignored en- 
tirely in the old schools — except operations — 
and because they are of immense importance in 
the analysis and treatment of human ills. They 
are among the greatest factors as reflex causes 
of disturbances, both mental and physiological. 
We go back to Nature for guidance in this study 
as we do in dietetics and all other departments 
of our work. In diet we found the old carbo- 
hydrate theory a failure and we set to work to 
find why. We discovered that the proportions 
of the carbonates and nitrophosphates were 
bad. We found that when a baby nurses its 
mother the proportions of C to NP are 2 to 1; 
when it is weaned on cow's milk the C is de- 
creased to a ratio 1 and 1/3 to 1. The carbo- 
hydrate theory calls for a ratio of 4 to 1 or even 
5 to 1. We found it requires four times as much 
energy to handle C as it does to handle NP even 



22 THE STOLEN WIFE 

were they present in equal proportions. We de- 
veloped our dietary chart from this start and 
now we are able to prescribe foods so that we 
know exactly how many grains of the essential 
elements we are providing, naturally, while the 
old-school doctors are giving grains, etc., of ar- 
tificial preparations, mostly manufactured by pat- 
ent medicine concerns. 

In the sex disease proposition we found the 
old doctors drugging and operating with the re- 
sults given in the tabulated statement foregoing, 
but persisting because they know of nothing else 
and because there is big money in operations — 
there should be less expense to the patient be- 
cause it is all over quickly and she has to take 
all the risks. We found doctors of divinity and 
doctors of medicine teaching they should not in- 
vestigate the sex question because the subject is 
"obscene." We found them as ignorant as the 
laity, too. We went back to Nature and found 
that She made humanity male and female for two 
purposes : Companionship and procreation. We 
found they need each other, mentally and phy- 
siologically, and when they obey the laws of Na- 
ture in both respects they live longer and are 
happier, thus proving the wise purpose of the 
Creator. We learned many truths that are easily 
proved. We learned that Nature begins to pre- 
pare children for parenthood almost as soon as 
they are born and at about the age^of fourteen 
thev are able to conceive ; but we observed that 



THE STOLEN WIFE 23 

the first child of young parents is almost invari- 
ably small and delicate, proving the need of edu- 
cation, preparation, development. We found 
that those who have been taught the sex sub- 
ject is "obscene" are either lascivious or prud- 
ish — practically the same thing. We found so 
many interesting natural truths that it would be 
impossible to enumerate them in a book. They 
must be imparted in connection with general in- 
formation in anatomy, physiology, chemistry, 
mechanics, etc., as applied to the workings of the 
body. Let it suffice to say that thousands who 
have received instruction by graduates from our 
school are well and happy, temperate in all 
things, abstainers from none which are natural. 
We have been slandered as ''free lovers" because 
we have truthfully pointed out the awfulness of 
the marriage state as it is advocated and prac- 
ticed by "Christian" ministers and their flocks. 
We reply that it is they who support the "red 
light" districts; they who devised divorce that 
they might dispose of their worn out women and 
get others in a "Christian" manner. Neurology 
is not an advocate of licentiousness — not even in 
the family circle, where it is practiced orthodox- 
ly. We are honest w T ith ourselves and with Na- 
ture. We have received our information from 
Her, with the proofs ; we are not ashamed of 
it; we have not learned anything we cannot tell 
any man, woman or child and we have never 
made a nickel bv it. 



DOCTOR AND PATIENT. 

March 9, 1904, Amy N. Black presented her- 
self for analysis and treatment for a condition 
which had been too much for the old school doc- 
tors, and she told me neurology was her last at- 
tempt to secure health;' if it failed she would end 
her existence rather than become a charge on 
her friends. Physically her appearance was bad; 
she was anaemic and neurasthenic and had al- 
ways been ill ; she was tall, five feet eight inches, 
slender and delicate. Her history during her en- 
tire life, thirty-four years, was one of suffering; 
she had been operated four times, three on her 
sex organs and one on her kidneys — the same 
old story of promises of cure and utter failure. 
After Dr. Niles, of Salt Lake City, had removed 
an ovary and performed curettage, the great lit- 
tle humbug, Nicholas Senn, of Chicago, told her 
mother and her that the other doctors were fools, 
that all she needed was his kidney operation and 
she would be well. They took his word and not 
only allowed him to operate, but paid him for it ; 
and when, after she not only failed to secure 
what he promised but was made worse by the op- 
eration and complained to him about it, he re- 
plied indignantly that she would have to get used 
to her new trouble. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 25 

Our nerve test showed her high line, 45 years 
9 months ; safety line, 41 years 2 months ; danger 
line, 36 years 7 months; low line, 32 years. Her 
exact age that day was 33 years 6 months; 7 
years 8 months below her high line and only 
1 year 6 months above her low line. She was in 
a condition which we consider beyond the "limit 
angle" of Nature to help and as a rule we refuse 
to touch such cases. But there was something 
so attractive in her honest blue eyes, the key to 
her mentality, that on the impulse I told her I 
would take the case, on my own terms, only, 
which were that if Nature succeeded in doing 
what I believed possible through neurology my 
fee would be considerable ; otherwise there would 
be no fee. I wanted to study metaphysics prac- 
tically, and here was the opportunity of a life- 
time. She demurred, saying she was able to pay 
for my services and would like to know the prob- 
able expense. I explained how utterly impossible 
it would be to set a fee in such a case and that 
as a teacher of neurology I was more interested 
in putting it to the severest tests for the benefit 
of my pupils than I was in the fee. She there- 
upon accepted my proposition and treatment was 
begun. The first thing I found absolutely neces- 
sary was to have another operation — irony of 
fate sure enough, for we are against operations. 
This time her teeth had to come out. If I had 
seen her before the other operations there would 



26 THE STOLEN WIFE 

have been no need of any. I sent her to a dentist 
"friend" who told her very promptly I was all 
right on some subjects, but that I knew nothing 
of dentistry. All she needed was to have her 
teeth treated. I sent her to others until we found 
one who really knew something and he found a 
necrosis of the lower jaw, as I had told her, 
which would soon have left it nothing but car- 
tilage. He did the necessary work on the lower 
jaw but disagreed with me as to the upper, only 
to find later that neurology knew what it was 
doing all the time — the uppers had to come. Aft- 
er the first operation there was much relief and 
from being compelled to remain in bed much of 
the time with neuralgia she was soon practically 
free from pain most of the time, and rarely had 
to go to bed with it. She did not get along to 
my entire satisfaction, however, so I advised her 
to live at the college that fall, which she did for 
two months, away from her family and in a 
company of others who were companionable. In 
eight weeks she acquired an appetite, a novelty 
to her, and one which did much to arouse hope 
and belief of eventual good health. She was 
born on a farm in Saline county, Missouri, and 
had been situated fortunately financially, so that 
she had the benefits of contact with other girls 
in a young ladies' seminary, while unable to 
pursue the regular course of study, and after the 
death of her father in 1890 she, with her mother 



THE STOLEN WIFE 27 

and sister had traveled much, hence she was an 
interesting acquaintance because she had acquired 
something superior to the ordinary education — 
the capacity to observe and think. She exhibited 
such dignity and poise that she commanded re- 
spect and when those about her became ac- 
quaint with her they all loved her — other 
women particularly. 

Up to this time but one thing had occurred to 
interfere with the prospects of success. One 
day during the summer I was sitting in my outer 
office with my back toward the door, dictating to 
my stenographer. Suddenly I heard a voice. It 
said: "You are not doing my sister one bit of 
good!" I turned and saw protruding above the 
top of mjy desk a scrawny face, of uncertain 
age, (47 now), with a sharp chin, thin lips drawn 
tightly, little brown eyes and a shock of reddish 
hair. It gave me. the shudders, but I replied : 
"And who are you?" "I am Miss Belle Black," 
she snapped, and was about to say more when 
I interrupted with : "Well, your sister looks bet- 
ter than you do anyhow ; and I would not tackle 
your case for money or anything else." I "spot- 
ted" her at once as belonging in class "D" and 
I did not miss the mark, as the sequel will show. 
After a few verbal rounds she departed, my en- 
emy, of course. Her class live for revenge for 
either real or fancied injuries and they will sac- 
rifice their best friends to accomplish their pur- 



28 THE STOLEN WIFE 

poses. They are always posers, with alleged 
"consciences." The sequel will show the appro- 
priateness of the word "alleged," too. When my 
patient came on her next visit I told her of the 
incident, when she begged me to take no offense 
at the girl, for she had suffered a disappointment 
in a love affair which the family were agreed 
had affected her mind to some extent. Here was 
the sympathy which distinguishes class "A," and 
it was repaid in the most outrageous manner con- 
ceivable. I knew in a general way the character- 
istics of class "D," but I confess I had no con- 
ception of the lengths they will go to accomplish 
their ends until I had my experiences with this 
creature. 

My patient passed an uneventful winter and 
gained steadily for a year. One day she tele- 
phoned me she had another patient for me; one 
who was afflicted with bleeding, from the nose in 
dangerous quantities and who had been treated 
by "regular" doctors for a long time without 
avail; her mother. I had imagined the mother 
must be a tall, slender, austere person, because 
the girls were slender ; but, on the strength of the 
information about the exhibit, my estimate re- 
solved itself into a short, stout woman, of the 
friendly type, and when she came I found I was 
correct. The old lady was seventy-eight, 
weighed one hundred and eighty-four pounds, 
was about five feet two inches tall and was the 



THE STOLEN WIFE 29 

gentlest, sweetest woman I have ever known. We 
became friends at once. When I explained to 
her the cause of her troubles and how the ex- 
hibit was her salvation, she saw the natural- 
ness of it all and was the most faithful patient 
I ever had, not even excepting her good 
daughter. We soon reduced her weight thirty 
pounds, increased the strength of the walls of 
her blood vessels and stopped the bleeding. 

Some weeks later, on one of her visits, Amy 
informed me that her sister Belle wanted me to 
examine and prescribe for her. I scented trouble, 
but Amy had been such a good patient that my 
friendship for her prompted me to take a chance 
— the result was awful. Not directly from that, 
but, if I had never made her acquaintance, had 
obeyed my first impulse toward her and tabooed 
her from the beginning, I would be happier to- 
day — so would Amy. 

On the first of September, 1905, Amy called 
for her bill, saying I had earned a good fee and 
she desired to settle. I told her she was not yet 
up to the standard of safety, by actual measure- 
ment, and she would better remain under treat- 
ment. She then proposed to enter the college 
as a student. I thought it a good idea as it would 
give her a better opportunity to know how to 
take care of herself and she would have a pro- 
fession from the practice of which she could earn 
her living, so she was accepted, paid her tuition 



60 THE STOLEN WIFE 

and was graduated with credit to herself and 
to the college. After she had begun the work 
her sister Belle concluded she wanted to enter 
too. I again conceded a point with misgivings, 
which were justified by her conduct in the class 
and later. She proved lazy, indifferent, prudish, 
and was not only unpopular among her class- 
mates but was graduated by a "scratch" and only 
because it was seen she would never attempt to 
practice. She only attended to gratify her en- 
vious soul by at least appearing as her sister's 
equal. She was and is one of those who are 
conscious of their dishonesty and hypocrisy in 
a vague w T ay, hence are constantly suspicious of 
others. In my school we teach anatomy, physiol- 
ogy, therapy, etc., as all good medical schools 
should, and we teach the respective importance 
of each department, the sex department being of 
particular interest because ours is the only school 
which is natural all the way through. This prude 
looked out of the window or stared at the floor 
in a "properly embarrassed" manner (all the time 
damning the fates for not bringing her a husband, 
as the sequel will show), while all the other 
eighteen in the class listened attentively, eagerly, 
decently and became enlightened. The hussy 
came into my private office on one occasion, with 
Amy, and in a fit of hysterics, which showed 
her mind was always on the sex subject, ac- 
cused me of seducing her "baby sister" — (Amy 



THE STOLEN WIFE 31 

was the thirteenth child in the family) — thus ex- 
pressing a lack of faith not only in me but in 
Amy also. I have never seen a person so thor- 
oughly shocked as Amy was on that occasion. 
I very promptly and forcibly informed the in- 
sulting prude that there were two reasons why 
neither of them would ever be outraged: Amy be- 
cause she was so dignified and good; she because 
she was an impossible. That settled her for the 
time., but she is a persevering devil, the waiting 
sort. 

As the time for graduation approached the ques- 
tion of my fee was broached again by Amy. Her 
sweet, quiet nature had become such a necessity 
to me that I found myself dreading the coming 
separation without realizing that there might be 
a way to avoid it, until the fee proposition gave 
me an impulse and I acted instanter. I told the 
girl I hoped my claim would not be greater than 
she would be willing to pay without protest be- 
cause it meant all or nothing to me. I said: 
"I want you to be my wife, my chum, my good 
friend, my partner for life." It was a surprise 
to her as it was to me, because we had regarded 
ourselves as unusually good friends and that 
was all : but she. too, found herself, told me T 
honored her and gave me her premise. From a 
hapless old widower I was immediately trans- 
formed into a hopeful, happy young man. 

The influence of the older girl, whom I had 



32 THE STOLEN WIFE 

come to regard as a she-devil, exhibited in the 
timidity Amy expressed with reference to in- 
forming her of our engagement. However she 
finally accepted the inevitable and the other con- 
gratulated me with a manner which suggested 
snakes. I shivered but thanked her, looked at 
the sweet face of my fiance and was happy. 

When I proposed marriage the good girl 
thought first of her duties toward her widowed 
mother and disappointed sister (who had man- 
aged to convince her that she put off marrying 
a man — Dr. LeRoy Jones, Hoopeston, 111., to 
whom she had been engaged, but who broke the 
engagement, and married another — because 
of her sense of duty). I assured my 
sweetheart I had no desire to separate her 
from her mother and would invite moth- 
er and sister to make their home with 
us. This gave her much pleasure, for she loved 
her mother dearly and was on the most intimate 
terms with her; much more so than the sister 
could ever be, and she knew me well enough 
to know that her mother and her prospective hus- 
band were already pretty much in love with each 
other — and it lasted until the dear old lady died 
in my arms, August 14, 1909, aged nearly eighty- 
three, with all her miental faculties working per- 
fectly while the physiological ones simply ran 
down, like a clock, and she died sitting in her 
chair after a busy day about the house. Had 




BELLE BLACK, THE MEDDLESOME. 

A Disappointed Old Maid Who Caused Lots of 
Trouble. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 33 

this calamity not befallen us the she-devil, with 
all her plotting, would not have succeeded in her 
diabolical designs. (Amy, under the mental dom- 
ination of Belle, told a mutual friend last spring 
that when mother died the anchor which held 
her was raised.) 

Soon after graduating the sisters left for the 
old homestead, near Slater, Missouri, where 
mother had been living with a son while the 
girls were in college. Then the she-devil began 
to work on the sympathies of her victim. If 
she couldn't get a man she didn't want her 
younger sister to. Had she been anything but 
wholly "Bad" she would have been delighted 
with her sister's happiness ; but it was and is her 
nature, I presume ; she sowed the seeds of doubt, 
insidiously, day after day, and the "Good" girFs 
susceptible nature fell a victim. One letter 
to me would express happiness and hopefulness 
and the next would fill my soul with anguish, be- 
cause I knew from whence the despondence 
came. I knew my "Baby Girl" (as mother called 
her when she gave her to me) needed me phy- 
sically and mentally as much as I needed her 
gentle, amiable influence in developing the great 
system which had brought so much to us both, 
so I finally addressed her as follows : 

"Thursday, August 16, 1906. 
"Dearest Amy — I love you so dearly that I 
would sacrifice my happiness to protect you in 



34 THE STOLEN WIFE 

the enjoyment of all that is the just due to such 
a soul as I believe you possess. In view of 
recent occurrences I deem it best to make the 
following statement for your perfect understand- 
ing of the situation: 

"I offer you an honest love; one that has 
never proved false to a friend. Some alleged 
friends have proved false to me, but I never 
held others for that. 

"I offer you a liberal mind. One that be- 
lieves in honest investigation in every direction, 
tempering it, I hope, with reason and judgment. 

"I offer you a healthy body, a passionate one, 
better controlled than 999,999 in every million 
of men. This guarantees my wife protection 
from the pains of maternity, except upon mutual 
agreement. 

"I offer you an earning capacity of about 
$10,000 a year, with an accumulation of com- 
paratively little because of expenses, robberies by 
friends, etc., but if I should die my assets, in 
copyrights, etc., would yield considerable, and if 
I live a few years I hope to add something more 
substantial. 

"I offer you a half interest in my business 
while I live and all of it afterwards. It has been 
established by straightforward work, and in do- 
ing this I have had to fight : First, prejudice in my 
own family ; second, the animosity of physicians ; 
third, the carelessness of graduates; fourth, the 
antipathy of people whose views, religious and 
otherwise, I could not agree with; fifth, robbery 
by a brother mason; sixth, domestic infelicity; 
seventh, a desire for information which inter- 
fered with money-getting; eighth, a constant ef- 
fort on the part of others to run my business 



THE' STOLEN WIFE 35 

or cause it to fail. I have conquered all. But 
in doing it I have developed a quick, impulsive 
manner of expression which some call irrasci- 
bility. I fear I' could not 'turn the other cheek/ 
and, frankly, I do not think I should try. I 
have had a long business career — thirty-five 
years in forty-eight. I feel that I am a better 
judge of what I ought to do in my business than 
anyone else would be. I want peace so much 
that I will fight to get it. I have gone on record 
in the courts as 'cruel' in order to escape perse- 
cution and to protect my friends from insult by 
one who should have given me fealty and who 
might have done so had I neglected my duties to 
her and to myself to pay her homage and be 
dishonest with myself and others. She com- 
mitted perjury to put me on the record; but I 
escaped. It is worth it. 

"I am not in a position to retire honorably 
or with a competence to support you and me as 
I want to. 

"I need a wife who is not hampered by ideas 
that will antagonize mine at every turn. Who 
will understand I want no secrets between us. 
Who will not expect me to be an archangel until 
I pass to the next sphere. Who will have the 
faith in me that I give her. Who will be proud 
of my fighting qualities when the cause is just 
and who will, by gentle love, instead of pouting, 
help me to let the naturally bright side of my 
nature shine for her. Who will appreciate my 
good intentions and not magnify mistakes until 
they are crim;es. Who will study me before she 
marries me, and if there are any qualities she 
could not tolerate she will refuse to marry. Who 
will also study herself and see if there be any 



36 THE STOLEN WIFE 

qualities in her which might require as much 
forbearance on my part as my shortcomings will 
on her. Who will come to me expecting to be 
my equal in all things, inferior in none and su- 
perior only in beauty of character, because she 
does not have to do the fighting. Who will take 
me to her breast and just hold me without a word 
of censure when I have been 'naughty/ but who 
will talk it over later without prejudice. Who 
will devote her life to our mutual happiness 
while I do the same. Who will not demand that 
I attempt the impossible by changing all the 
character I have to something possibly ideal 
but certainly not practical. Who will realize 
there is a healthv standard, mental and physio- 
logical. Who will not assume that all conces- 
sions should come from me should we chance to 
differ. Who will put herself in my place when 
she sees things to criticize. 

"All I ask of her I pledge myself to observe 
religiously. ■ 

"To me she shall be first, last and all the 
time. I want to be the same to her. 

"I have many faults, if one looks for them; 
and if looked at through the magnifying glass 
of prejudice or selfish desire for comfort, re- 
gardless of extenuating circumstances, might be 
considered great faults. Or, if viewed through a 
minus lens, might appear trivial. If the woman I 
love is settled in ways and beliefs and manners 
that mine are revolting- to, she would be doing 
herself a wrong to marry me, and I could not 
ask such a sacrifice. If she thinks there is any 
possibility of the marriage relation being dis- 
tasteful to her in any respect she should not 
take the step. It would be the part of wisdom, 



THE STOLEN WIFE 37 

however, I believe, to consider the possibilities of 
a single life. Illness, with no one who could 
give the tender care a loving husband can; age 
coming on, with elders dying and leaving one 
alone; a great love cast aside for fear of it not 
being always heaven ; her own love sacrificed on 
the altar of prejudice or suspicion, or dread, or 
doubt. 

'Then the matters of time and circum- 
stances come in. Long engagements are bad 
in several ways. Important considerations 
should not be set aside for comparatively 
trivial things, because she is interested in the 
former as well as the latter as much as her 
husband, while he is little concerned in the 
latter — especially when he does not know w^hat 
they are. 

"The whole matter should be settled by a 
talk, not by writing, for it is so easy to misin- 
terpret the spirit or the letter of written mes- 
sages. 

"I have never in all my life met one whom 
I esteemed so highly on first acquaintance. Who 
after years of suffering retained such coolness 
and exhibited such rare judgment. I loved you 
(and always will) long before I told you of it. 
I trust you above all women. I want you for my 
wife and if I do not gain your complete love and 
co-operation as to my immediate and remote 
future, I will never allow myself to think of a 
wife again. 

"I offer you love, a home, health and happi- 
ness, if I can fulfill my hopes. But when I am 
reminded of my many faults I sometimes doubt 
my ability to be all you could reasonably ask, 
try as I might. I think I could be that with 
some loving help and a spirit of forbearance 



38 THE STOLEN WIFE 

when you know I have no faults to find with 
you. I think I have very great reasons for an 
early marriage and I hope, if I am not too re- 
pellant, you will consent to it. But remember, 
my darling, your happiness first. I am as 
worthy now, if not more' so, than I will be next 
spring or months later. I have had about all 
one man can stand and I need loving support 
mentally instead of additional burdens. You 
can give me what I ask — unless it is a sacrifice — 
if it is don't do it. 

"With an aching heart, full of love for you, I 
am your most earnest lover. Charles." 

Her reply was very satisfactory and I felt I 
had won the battle finally. Within a month 
mother and the sisters came to Chicago and es- 
tablished themselves comfortably so that I saw 
them daily. But the she-devil was still at work. 
Several times I found my sweetheart in tears 
when I called, and she told me she feared we 
were making a mistake. I argued until it be- 
came apparent I was making matters worse for 
her and I took another tack: I offered to sacri- 
fice myself and let her go to California, or any- 
where, for a year. I told her how hard it 
would be for me, but it would be better to take 
a year to think it over than to make a mistake. 
Her sympathies for me came to the front again 
and she finally decided to marry me, stipulating, 
expressly, that if either of us should ever tire 
of the other, or if either should ever find some 



THE STOLEN WIFE 39 

one more congenial, that one would be honest 
enough with the other to say so and we would 
quit friends. I agreed, knowing well I would 
never find anyone who could supplant her in my 
affections for one minute — I never have and 
never will. 

We were married November twenty-seventh, 
1906; her wedding ring has engraved inside of 
it: "A life for a life," a little sentiment we con- 
ceived in our happiness ; and I was disgracefully 
happy for three and a half years in the belief 
that it was for life. 

Two days later came Thanksgiving and we 
had mother and Belle with us for dinner. After 
dinner and a couple of hours^ visit, I gave 
mother her "orders" : She was directed to go 
home and pack her belongings because she was 
about to move ; she was coming to live with us — 
and Belle was coming too. Mother made a 
feeble protest, but love for her "baby" won and 
she came to us cheerfully. I had many misgiv- 
ings about Belle, but felt that two "Good" ones 
in the house could hold one "Bad" one level; 
and it was true in a measure, although she tried 
my patience sorely many times. Once I was 
compelled, for business reasons, to talk to my 
wife and mother about her conduct and they 
put a quietus, on her so far as insidious work 
among the students was concerned. She still 
sowed seeds of doubt in my wife's mind and did 



40 THE STOLEN WIFE 

it with malice, as shall be proved over her own 
signature. She not only let her nature work to 
make her sister unhappy but she violated the 
laws of hospitality. In this she was aided and 
abetted by. my own sister, Mrs. Carrie L. Rowe, 
of Buffalo, N. Y., the wife of G. Allan Rowe, 
M. D., a "genito-urinary" specialist and "man- 
gossip" as will be proved. Both of these people 
butted into this affair in an assassin-like manner, 
without the slightest provocation, except that I 
have entertained them repeatedly. They will be 
attended to farther on in this work. 

The success of neurology in the cases of my 
wife and her mother, beside many others which 
came under their observation, filled our mother's 
soul with hopes that it might save one of her 
sons, who, after graduating from the medical 
department of the University of Pennsylvania 
had become addicted to the use of cocaine and 
opium, and after going - the limit, had caused 
himself to be detained in a state institution in 
the hope of breaking away from the stuff. (They 
let him have it there just as usual. He was use- 
ful in laboratory and other work, and they 
wanted him to remain.) She expressed her 
thoughts to her "baby" who was and is the 
greatest part of mjy life; they were repeated to 
me. There was nothing I would not undertake 
for mother and the result was that her boy se- 
cured a furlough of six months, came to visit 



THE STOLEN WIFE 41 

us, liked me and I liked him. Together we con- 
quered his "dope" habit, and he is today the 
dean of the faculty and one of the best teachers 
in McCormick Medical College, which is equiva- 
lent to saying one of the best in the world; a 
manly man, proud of his accomplishment and 
grateful to neurology and to me. He has had to 
suffer for the latter, however, as the sequel will 
show, and it is not creditable to Belle. This 
villainous sister did her worst, to drive him back 
to drugging, either from pure devilishness or 
because she feared his re-establishment might 
cause some changes in her mother's will which 
was already made, and, by reason of my wife's 
marriage, was largely in her favor, which was 
agreeable to us. She talked about him, nagged 
him, charged him with "toadying" to me and 
otherwise irritated him until he came near doing 
what she wanted; he did break over once for 
two weeks, but by dint of some tall swearing on 
my part and his own good sense we won again 
and for good, although that unnatural sister has 
said and has made my sweet wife say to Dr. 
Crosby and others that he will fall again. I'll 
be damned if he will. When we pulled out it 
almost drove Belle to desperate measures ; but, 
realizing that mother was being cared for as 
could be done nowhere else, she contained her- 
self until after mother left us, when she began 



43 THE STOLEN WIFE 

in earnest and in less than nine months accom- 
plished her vile purpose. 

In the meantime there was a grandson of our 
good mother, the son of Nannie J. Croff, Seddlia, 
Mo., who was an epileptic; and when mother 
suggested that as we had cured others of the 
same malady we might be able to do something 
for him, I consented, stipulating, however, that 
in order to insure the best results, I would have 
to charge him a reasonable fee, which I set at 
$500, the minimum for such cases. The family 
agreed that was reasonable because it included 
his room and board for at least six months. In 
due time he arrived, accompanied by his mother, 
a "grass" widow, having been deserted by Har- 
vey Croff/ her husband, when her children were 
small; for what reason I know not. The boy, 
aged about twenty, was employed as telegraph 
operator and assistant in the Missouri Pacific 
train dispatcher's office at Sedalia, and was very 
much in love with his work; his employer liked 
him and expressed much interest in his prospec- 
tive cure. Like many other relatives the boy was 
hard to manage, and when, at the end of the 
first week, he gave me a check for a hundred 
dollars, with a lofty air, I laid it away because I 
foresaw he would not conform to our rules and 
would, very likely, have to be dismissed as an in- 
corrigible. I decided, for love of wife and moth- 
er, to give him extra time and he was permitted 
to remain three months — the mother remained 



THE STOLEN WIFE 43 

one — during which time he paid $250 all told. 
When he was finally dismissed, his mother had 
gone home and his uncle, the despised brother of 
my wife and able instructor in my college, took 
the young man home at his own expense, for 
which he has never received so much as a "thank 
you." I mailed to the mother the original check 
and draft her boy gave me because I knew they 
would need the money to pay the "dope" doctors 
when they were called to attend him in his fits, 
as they were sure to return. I have never re- 
ceived any "thank you" either; on the contrary 
the boy's mother has aided and abetted the she- 
devil in kidnapping my sweet wife from me. 

During the following summer another char- 
acter appeared on the scene in the person of my 
own sister, referred to ante, who came to my 
home on our invitation to recuperate after an 
operation for "appendicitis," the fashionable 
"disease" produced by bad living and reproduced, 
after operation, by the same process. She was, 
of course, accorded the best we had at our com- 
mand. In return she ridiculed our methods of 
practice in the presence of students, insisted on 
such foods as were worst for her (but which 
were supplied with all courtesy), until her dis- 
loyalty and boorishness were the subject of re- 
marks. Dr. Will Black, the despised brother, 
knowing what our system had done for his sister, 
his mother, himself and thousands of others, re- 



44 THE STOLEN WIFE 

sented her conduct and ceased to pay attention to 
her, whereupon she, having discovered his sis- 
ter's attitude toward him, committed the out- 
rageous breach of good manners to complain to 
my wife and Belle that Will was not treating her 
right. Belle improved the opportunity to go after 
him and reported to me. I let them fight it out. 
When the complainant went home she had the 
impudence to send him a book, which he did not 
acknowledge, of course, and shfe complained 
some more. But Will has survived that and 
some more shots from that quarter, which will 
be referred to later. 

While this relative of mine was with us our 
good mother died. She just uttered "I am so 
tired" and expired in her chair. Her remains 
were taken to Marshall, Missouri, for interment 
in the family lot. On their return from the 
funeral my wife, her devilish sister and the 
brother united in expressing to me their appre- 
ciation of the good home I had given mother 
in her last years and said they could never do 
enough for me — one of them, meant she could 
never do enough to me, it appears now. Her 
evident relief from responsibility when her 
mother died was exhibited so cold-bloodedly that 
some of our friends noticed it, as I learned later, 
and my wife apologized for it by explaining that 
"Belle never shows emotion at anything/' I be- 
lieve that is correct. Not so my "Good" baby 



THE STOLEN WIFE 45 

girl. Her grief was pitiful. Night after night 
she sobbed herself to sleep in my arms. I wept 
with her. I sympathized with her and I loved 
mother and missed her too. 

Having enjoyed three years of my hospitality, 
well-knowing that she could never have done so 
but for my love of wife and mpther, Belle now 
began to lay plans for her final blow at me and 
at men in general. Her last chance had gone 
glimmering a few weeks after mother's death 
when Dr. W. S. Evans, of Kansas City, Mo., had 
escaped her. He had been a student in my school, 
had taken her out to the theatres a few times 
and on one occasion had said something she 
chose to construe into a proposal, but she made 
one of her "smart" breaks at him and he retired 
in good order. She then consulted the cele- 
brated Bangs Sisters on the West Side, and their 
"slate-writings" advised her to follow him. She 
took my wife and did it. They went to Kansas 
City to the home of our friends, the Crosby's, 
and Belle asked Dr. C. to go after Dr. Evans. 
He did so, and on the way to his home Dr. E. 
volunteered the information that he had never 
any serious intentions toward the lady. When 
he met her she opened the subject again — this 
female who was so shocked at sex teachings — 
when he promptly replied. "Let us talk about 
something else. I gave up all ideas of that sort 
My wife told me of the con- 



46 » THE STOLEN WIFE 

versation as Belle had reported it to her. Both 
were indignant at Dr. Evans. They should 
roast the Bangs Sisters. I have been puzzling 
all along over what she wanted a man for. My 
only conclusion is that prudes are lewds. Neu- 
rologists are neither. 

The first symptom of her vile influence on 
my wife exhibited in fault-finding. I have been 
working like a Trojan for nearly or quite forty 
years, particularly hard during the seventeen 
years I have been at the head of a school and 
making researches along medical lines, and I am 
not always as patient as I might be, particularly 
if I chance to hurt myself ; I sometimes swear — 
but never at my wife — I adore her. She would 
criticize me for not showing her "proper re- 
spect"; then she would apologize the next day. 
One evening one of these accidents occurred — 
I struck my ankle against a chair rocker in the 
dark. I swore. Who wouldn't? She reproved 
me for my "disrespect" to her, and while I was 
hurting I replied: "Oh! dear! you'll be apolo- 
gizing to me for that tomorrow !" She retorted : 
"No, I will not! I will never apologize to you 
for anything !" and she has not, save once. 

The influence continued. The criticism 
grew. The habit grew. I was finally informed 
I was "coarse," "unrefined." Knowing the true 
source of the criticism, and not caring to be 
misquoted, I wrote and submitted for their con- 



THE STOLEN WIFE 47 

sideration the following definitions of "refine- 
ment" as I comprehend it: 

"There are two kinds of refinement: Super- 
ficial and deep. The first is a sort of veneer; 
very bright on the surface; inclined to self-can- 
onization; demands recognition of forms; sees 
little but surfaces ; lacks deep sense of principles ; 
wears out and exposes a coarseness beneath; 
magnifies the faults of friends and harps on 
them. The second often presents a rough ex- 
terior, because of associations and environments, 
possibly; often due to absence of thought of 
self; sets principles above persons; does not 
vaunt itself ; would rather be alone than be 
nagged; would never consent to being false for 
policy's sake; admires staunch traits, even in 
enemies ; is always true to friends and frank 
with enemies." 

Without considering that I had any right to 
resent constant criticism, this was taken as a 
mortal insult — after interpretation by the she- 
devil — and it was determined to go at once and 
take her victim with her. But there was a hitch. 
The poor girl did not want to go. She had been 
deluded to a point where she had expressed 
hatred of her brother and disregard for her 
mother's well-known wishes that he remain with 
us for his own and the school's good, but she 
was not prepared to desert a good home and de- 
voted husband. She exhibited such great dis- 
tress, however, and begged so hard that I assist 



48 THE STOLEN WIFE 

her in her dilemma, even asking that I order her 
out of the house, that I advised her to go away 
for a visit, to go with her sister and visit her 
other sisters, Mrs. Jerrold Letcher, of Salt Lake 
City, and Mrs. L. O. Phillips, of Oak Park, Sac- 
ramento, California. It was a great risk, but I 
took it because I did not know what else to do. 
Mrs. Letcher does not like me a little bit be- 
cause, while she was enjoying my hospitality 
with her two children, two years ago, one of her 
boys, violating orders, fell fourteen feet down 
stairs from sliding banisters and nearly killed 
himself — while I was busy at work taking meas- 
ures to prevent serious results she stood at my 
side condemning my methods until I gave her a 
good scolding, for which I was again criticized 
by my wife. Mrs. L. has no particular love for 
Belle, but she improved her opportunity to get 
even with me when Belle presented it. The other 
sister has no particular grudge at me, unless it 
is for denying her the privilege of remaining at 
the college with Amy when she was my 
patient. For that Amy thanked me, saying: 
"Betty is good, but she snores and if she had been 
permitted to remain I could not get the results I 
am sure I will." I have entertained Mrs. Phil- 
lips at my home, as I have many other of my 
wife's relatives in order to give her all the hap- 
piness I could. 

So it was decided to go on the visit and she 




"MOTHER." 

The Good Woman Who Would Not Approve her Daughters' 
Conduct. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 49 

reported to Belle; but when I saw the sinister 
gleam in those little brown pig eyes I felt in- 
stinctively that I was about to lose my "baby 
girl" for always unless she could be reached and 
her reason snatched from the control of the 
fiend who would sacrifice anything, even a sis- 
ter's happiness, to gratify her own selfish love, to 
put it in the mildest possible form. 

The next events came thick and fast. Be- 
ginning on April 14, 1910, after a conference 
between the girls, they came down stairs, and, 
my wife speaking, the other standing saucily at 
her side, I was informed that unless I dismissed 
their brother from the school and the house at 
once they would both leave, as they could not 
endure him. I replied very promptly that the 
school could not stand such a shock as they de- 
manded and refused to do it. They at once be- 
gan to pack their belongings, while I, stunned at 
such conduct on the part of my wife, who had 
professed such interest in the school and the 
system which had done so much for her, and 
love for the man who was overworked and needed 
the help to keep from breaking down with his 
load. She had always — with the little excep- 
tions of fault-finding — been to me a dear, loving 
and loved companion, dignified and my pride in 
company, and a big, sweet baby in our own 
apartments. I retired to my office to think, and 
I wrote the following on 'The Situation." 



50 THE STOLEN WIFE 

"I am a man of faults. Grievous faults. I 
swear when provoked. Some would say it is 
justifiable, sometimes at least. Others would say 
it is never warranted. All right. I have never 
professed to be perfect or anywhere near it. It 
cannot be. denied however, that I have some vir- 
tues. In the muss now being enacted I am at 
fault in being, without ability to help it, obnox- 
ious to my wife. She says she hates me some- 
times, and then again she says she doesn't. She 
has talked of leaving me. She appears to want 
to go and to not want to go. Thinking to help 
her in her dilemma, I propose she go away for a 
time on a visit and see if she can get along bet- 
ter without than with me. Her sister steps in 
and charges me with 'throwing her back on her 
relatives' whatever that may mean. This be- 
cause I-said I did not believe she would ever re- 
turn, once she is away. Because conditions in 
my business are such and always will be such 
that I have to meet them on the spur of the 
moment and I do it as my judgment warrants — 
only to be criticized by those who know little or 
nothing of business. The strangest part of it 
all is that at the solicitation of the two girls and 
their mother, I undertook the task of helping 
their brother in the matter of his habit, and 
accomplished it with considerable sacrifice and 
now stand charged with caring more for him 
than I do for my wife ; and that by his own sis- 
ters ; by my wife. These sisters now propose 
that he shall go or they will go. It leaves me no 
alternative. I cannot get along without him un- 
less I sacrifice the school or my own health or 
both. This argument has no effect on them. 
He must go or they will go. I can't kill my 



THE STOLEN WIFE 51 

school, because I would have to begin life all 
over. They choose to interpret this as 'order- 
ing' them out of the house." 

I submitted the above to my wife with the 
additional argument that her loved mother wanted 
Will to remain with us and that after I had done 
so much she owed it to herself, to mother's mem- 
ory and to me to remain and let Belle go. I 
added, incautiously, that Belle was the sole dis- 
turber anyhow, that if she would let her brother 
alone he would not be "grouchy." 

I also submitted the following "Criticism of 
a Critic": 

"This is not a defense of anyone. It is pure- 
ly a criticism of a chronic and intolerant critic. 
Belle is a conceited prude who assumes a holier- 
than-thou, think-on-a-high-plane, more-compe- 
tent-to-attend-to-your-affairs attitude that has 
palled on me a long time. She w r as the first to 
endeavor to influence you (Amy) to require me 
to cease teaching sex ills in my school. It was 
she who talked to students until it came to my 
ears, and I had to go to you and mother and tell 
you if you could not stop her she would have to 
go. It was she who kicked up one of the big 
rows with Dr. Feige (an assistant), when I 
swore at him in the presence of the students — 
defending her, too. Then she criticized me for 
swearing. She has picked at Will, finding fault 
with him for asking questions at the table, call- 
ing him a 'toady/ etc. That is where she has 
has an insiduous influence over you and made 



52 THE STOLEN WIFE 

you act in a manner I never thought you could 
do. She has comie to me dozens of times in 
your presence and told me she was going to talk 
to Will and tell him a few things. I stopped it 
whenever I could by telling her she ought to 
know she would only roil him. She has been a 
thorn in his side and has kept me terrified lest he 
would be goaded back to 'doping'. She has al- 
ways boasted of what she has done — a poor sort 
of sisterly charity. Only last night she pro- 
posed to him that he leave the house as a way 
of settling the trouble. At the same time she 
told himi I had said to her yesterday morning 
that I had to take care of him. Now she said 
that with one of two deliberate purposes : One 
to make him sore at me by insinuating that I said 
he was unable to take care of himself ; the other 
to rub it in on him, What I said to her was : 
He, having always worked under directions, need- 
ed them, and as I would have no others to look 
after I would take care of Bill and the school. 
So you can see, if you will, that she is malic- 
ious. I have always felt that she dominated you 
and that she was a bad prospect on account of 
her comments on my swearing and teachings, and 
that sooner or later she would bring us trouble ; 
but I took the chance because mother was here 
and needed her and you needed company. She 
told m'e yesterday that she would have been gone 
long ago, but that she would not leave mother. 
That's where you stand with her. She is an 
insulting hussy, and if I ever open on her I will 
give her as good as she sends or drop dead try- 
ing. She is one of the cowardly kind who do 
their dirty work under the pretense of friend- 
ship and who takes advantage of the fact that 



THE STOLEN WIFE 53 

she is a woman to do things to men that would 
not be tolerated a minute in another man by a 
man. This is my criticism of a contemptible, 
underhanded critic. April 14, 1910. 

That evening, during the process of gather- 
ing up her clothing for packing, Amy kept re- 
peating to me a story she had told me time after 
time — a pure invention of Belle's — that her 
brother was having a bad influence over me by 
talking badly to me about her. I had informed 
her as repeatedly that the idea was nonsense, 
that neither her brother nor anyone else had 
ever said anything to me of her save in praise; 
that none would dare to. She insisted she knew 
better. I retorted: "IT IS A LIE"! Under 
the tutelage of the she-devil this has been dis- 
torted into my calling her a "liar." Immediately 
following that occurrence, and after a confer- 
ence with Belle, my wife told me she was going 
to leave for good ; that I had ordered her out of 
the house ; that she would go where I could not 
find her and would leave no address. I was 
pretty well worked up by that time and I re- 
plied: "OH! YOU CAN GO PLUMB TO 
HELL IF YOU WANT TO." Not an elegant 
expression I coniess; but it was timely. This has 
been twisted into my telling her to "go to hell," 
when I only said she could go if she so willed. 
This is the only "quarrel" we ever had. This 
was not the cause of her leaving, because it had 



54 THE STOLEN WIFE 

already been decided to go; but the she-devil 
wanted to leave with a fuss so she could be sure 
to keep my girl and punish me. Yet the after- 
noon before they left the poor dear came to me 
in my office as I lay on a couch, and, sitting 
down beside me said: "I don't want to go away 
from you" ! I replied. "Bless your dear soul, I 
don't want you to go. This whole affair is 
fairly killing me." But the she-devil took her 
two days later. 

The next morning the two arose and went 
out to a hotel for breakfast; a deliberate plan 
of Belle's to advertise the trouble to the students 
and so work on her sister's pride she would 
crush her love for husband and home. They 
also went out for dinner; but their despised 
brother talked to Amy in the afternoon, she 
apologized to me for the discourtesy and they 
remained for supper and breakfast and dinner 
the next day. 

Just as they were leaving my wife took me 
into our room, and told me I had always been 
good to her and that she would always be grate- 
ful for it all. I begged her to remain and she 
replied with an air of despair: "I can't." I 
ventured to say she was being hypnotized, but 
it had beeen done so thoroughly that the word 
against the she-devil who did it ended it and she 
was gone. It was the shock of my life. The 
slugging I got at the hands of his cowardly 



THE STOLEN WIFE 55 

policeman when I published the fact that the 
mayor of Chicago married a negress, when all 
the dirty scandal-monging papers concealed 
the story for blackmail and other purposes, 
was a bagatelle alongside the blow my wife 
gave me on orders from Belle Black, who, by 
the way, said later that I deserved the slugging 
I got for exposing the outrageous conduct of 
a public official, Mr. Rosevelt's friend. 



SIGNS OF WAVERING. 

My wife was led away on April 16th. I 
grieved to distraction, could do nothing but wait 
and hope. I did not believe my "baby" could be 
kept under the devilish influence long, because 
the sister often vexed her until she would give 
the wretch a scolding; but the latter would take 
it so meekly Amy would repent and weep over it 
in my arms. 

As she left she told me she would go to the 
home of a friend, Mrs. Flavilla Wood, 5910 
Michigan avenue, for a few days and then go 
west. This, after declaring she would go and 
leave no address, was to me an encouraging fea- 
ture, so I waited, but did not write her or bother 
her in any way. The she-devil, Belle, even con- 
strued this into an expression of gladness at her 
departure. As they left, on Saturday the 16th, 
Amy demanded all of her pictures in my posses- 
sion, but I persuaded her to leave me one inas- 
much as she had two of mine. The devil got in 
some more work, and, as my pictures were said 
to be packed in boxes, they went to the photog- 
rapher and had copies made ; then, on the follow- 
ing Wednesday, April 20th, they came to the 
house, my wife bringing the pictures and giving 
me to understand they were the ones she had in 



THE STOLEN WIFE 57 

her boxes (one of them having the appearance 
of being taken from a frame), demanded that I 
surrender hers. The she-devil remained outside, 
out of sight. I led my "baby" into the library, 
closed the door and prayed to her to remain at 
home. She replied: "The man I married is 
dead; I have no respect for you. You have 
treated mie worse than I was ever treated in my 
life." This was such a surprise, after what she 
had told me when she was taking her leave a few 
days before, that I was shocked beyond expres- 
sion. I took her in my arms in spite of her pro- 
tests and reminded her that only a few days be- 
fore she had told me I had always been good to 
her. I got her to the point where she laid her 
head on my shoulder and cried softly. At that 
moment Belle opened the library door and said: 
"I have the picture." She had gone into my 
office and stolen it while I was arguing with my 
wife. At the sound of her voice Amy broke 
away from me and began a tirade about how my 
school would now go to wreck, etc., I turned my 
attention to the viper at the door and asked her 
if she knew she was liable to arrest for larceny. 
It frightened them both and my wife hastened 
to wish me well, after which they departed. It 
may be imagined I was desperate ; as they passed 
out of the door I told the she-devil I hoped she 
would drop dead before she could get into the 
car. To which she replied in her characteristic 



58 THE STOLEN WIFE 

manner: "I wouldn't spit on you/' This from 
the person who described me as "coarse." This 
from a person who had saved a thousand dol- 
lars, at least, in the three years she had lived at 
my house, always talking about paying board, I 
always refusing to accept it because my wife 
wanted her with us and I wanted my wife to be 
happy. 

These are small details, but they are what 
make up any story and the smallness as well as 
the largeness of people exhibits in their little 
acts. 

The next day I received the following letter 
from my wife: 

"Charles — When in the library yesterday it 
seemed to me there was something missing about 
the piano, and as I may have forgotten to tell 
you that I did not take any of the presents given 
us by your students or your family and as they 
can easily disappear, or find their way into the 
pawnshop I will enclose a list. (She did.) Are you 
willing that the money which Belle so often 
tried to pay you for board, but which you claimed 
she did not owe, and that her doing the market- 
ing was worth more than her expense, shall be 
paid to me? One who tried hard to be a good 
friend, Amy." 

The marketing mentioned is now being done 
in twenty minutes each day. I sent her the fol- 
lowing letter immiediately by special delivery, 



THE STOLEN WIFE 59 

because her evident interest in me and my wel- 
fare encouraged me to hope I would win her 
away from the devil : 

"April 23, 1910. 
"To 'One Who Tried Hard to be a Good Friend' : 

"My Dear 'Baby Girl 5 : I take the above, 
signed to your letter, to mean that you believe 
you have made a failure and that it is, somehow, 
my fault; and this, coupled with your statement 
to me Wednesday, that you no longer respect me, 
that the man you married is dead, prompts me to 
beg a reply to the following questions : 

"1. Is it because I have stuck to my work 
and won, despite all sorts of odds against me, or 

"2. Is it because I took your case six years 
ago, after the dopers and operators had reduced 
•you to within a few months of your dead-line, 
and won fairly good health for you, or 

"3. Is it because I did this without 
thought of anything but the success of neu- 
rology — even to specifying I would accept no 
fee unless I got results in spite of all the dam- 
age the other fellows had done and charged 
for with great promises, or 

"4. Is it because Belle abused me the first 
summer by calling at my office and in the pres- 
ence of my stenographer telling me I was doing 
you no good, when I told her you looked better 
than she anyhow, and that I would not take her 
case on any terms, or 

"5. Is it because I, later, at your request, 
made an examination of her and prescribed for 
her, telling you I would not do it for her, or 

"6. Is it because she, later, rewarded me by 
accusing me of seducing you, or 



60 THE STOLEN WIFE 

"7. Is it because I, later, took her into my 
home and tolerated her for your sake and moth- 
er's when she was constantly 'grieving' over the 
sex teachings of my school and threatening to 
leave us, thus worrying you and mother, or 

"8. Is.it because she uttered such 'refined' 
language here the other day when she to!d me, 
just after she had committed a theft from my 
office, she 'wouldn't spit on' me, or 

"9. Is it because I have kept my nose to the 
grindstone and have paid right along an expense 
of $9,000 a year, or 

"10. Is it because at your and her and moth- ' 
er's solicitation I took your brother and helped 
him conquer a bad habit, or 

"11. Is it beause I have entertained your 
people in the hope it would keep you from being 
lonesome, even to tolerating Sally Letcher's 
boorish boys and being scared out of a day's 
work when one fell over the banister and nearly 
killed himself — for fixing him I got a roast from 
his mother and a criticism from yourself because 
I roasted back, or 

"12. Is it because I have, by my discoveries 
stopped operations for cross eyes, muscular 
insufficiencies, etc., that I am unworthy of your 
respect, or 

"13. Is it because I have developed a system 
that is relieving thousands of human beings of 
suffering yearly, or 

"14. Is it because I have been through all 
sorts of trials and still retain my senses, or 

"15. Is it because I have, a few times, re- 
sented what I felt was unjust criticism, made at 
an inopportune moment, when I felt my physical 
condition was such as to entitle me to some con- 



THE STOLEN WIFE 61 

sideration — even if I swore when I hurt my- 
self or was irritated mentally over some of my 
business cares, or 

"16. Is it because, as you testified the day 
you left me, when you told me good-bye, that I 
have always been good to you, or 

"17. Is it because I have always been loyal 
to you to such an extent you called me 'Senti- 
mental Tommy/ or 

"18. Is it because you do not feel quite 
right for deceiving me about the pictures you 
brought here Wednesday, saying you had 'dug 
them out of your trunk/ when you were right 
from the photographer's with them new, or 

"19. Is it because you feel that you have 
done yourself and the one who loves you most 
a great wrong and are too lacking in moral cour- 
age to say so and forget it all, or 

"20. Is it because you told me that I de- 
stroyed our letters when you were away last fall, 
as part of a scheme to get rid of you, when we 
had an agreement that if either tired of the other 
we would say so and quit without a fuss ? You 
know in your soul that I only destroyed the un- 
pleasant ones and saved the other ones for you. 
You confess you destroyed them yourself. 

"21. Is it because, my darling, you are undei 
an evil spell? 

" I could add many more questions, but I do 
not care to now, as I simply plead my cause and 
the great love I have always given and now 
offer to you, with the best care I can give and 
'everything to hope for, physically and every 
other way. I want you at HOME. 

"Tenderly loving and hoping, yours. 

"Charles " 



62 THE STOLEN WIFE 

On the 27th I received the following: 

"Charles— ^1 have your letters and wish to go 
into them fully, which is impossible, situated as 1 
am. It does seem to me you could not fail to 
understand my position in the present situation; 
seeing you -made your choice, and circumstances 
which led up to it proved to me your stand; 
and I am sure what is for the good of the cause 
m[ust be satisfactory to all interested. I shall 
keep all the points in hand and when I reach 
some quiet place where I can I will try and show 
how it looks to me, and the utter surprise this 
has all been to me, for I tho't we had so much 
more than the average couple to bind our lives 
together. Sincerely, Amy." 

No reply to my twenty-one questions has ever 
arrived. The devil is still in the ascendancy. I 
had not replied to the above when I received the 
following by messenger at noon of the 29th : 

"Dear Charles — I would like to have a little 
talk with you and as writing is very unsatisfac- 
tory, could you meet me at the Palmer House 
(parlor floor) at 12:45? If the hour is incon- 
venient let me know by the boy; I will be here 
waiting his return. Sincerely, Amy." 

With a heart leaping for joy I beat the mes- 
senger boy to the hotel, where I spent an hour 
pleading with her to come home, arguing that we 
had no quarrels, that it was all Belle's nagging 
of her brother, and that now, with one of the 
disturbing elements away, we could try it with 
the alleged other one present and if the discord 



THE STOLEN WIFE 63 

continued we would let him go if it killed the 
school. She refused to consent to return under 
those conditions; declared her brother was a 
v villain and she would never have anything to do 
with him. Sorrow-stricken I parted from her 
once more and the next day, April 30th, I wrote 
her: 

"Amy Dear : I have been puzzling over why 
you sent for me yesterday, after telling me last 
Wednesday week that the man you loved and 
married is dead. I think I have found the solu- 
tion. Here it is : You love me. Your great' 
soul behind the sweet face tells you that you 
made a mistake in leaving as you did under the 
wilful misinterpretation of what I wrote on 
The Situation/ It tells you that no honest soul 
could ever find a line or a word that could be 
construed to mean that I wanted you to go at 
all. The most that could be found is that I, see- 
ing your condition, hearing what you had to say 
about your feelings for me at times, recom- 
mended that you go for a visit; but ex- 
pressed the fear and belief that if you once 
went you would never come back, because 
of the influences against it that you would 
be under. You wanted to see me yesterday, 
but when you saw me your prejudices came 
to you again and you told me two stories : 
First that you are going to get a position and 
work; second that you are going to California; 
that you have written you will be there soon. 
You told me I did a dishonorable act in acquir- 
ing your negatives from the photographer but 
had to laugh when I told you it was no worse 



64 THE STOLEN WIFE 

than your going to him and getting prints from 
mine and palming them off on me as the ones 
you have in your trunk. You did your noble 
soul a discredit when you expressed your hatred 
for your brother to the extent that you declared 
you will never come back while he is here, even 
when you know that to send him away now, 
when I am worked down would be a hardship 
on the students, on me and would hurt the school. 
You refused to put the matter to the only possi- 
ble test, namely, to come and try home for a 
week, or a month, or three months, with one of 
the disturbing elements away, on my promise to 
get rid of the other one if it still disturbs, thus 
putting yourself on record as either deliberately 
insincere or under some influence that does not 
permit you to do as your better judgment dic- 
tates. If you love your husband you will write 
to him at once to come for you and we will bury 
the past few weeks and be happy. If you don't 
love him you will go on away and you will not 
hear from him or be bothered in any way 
further — but he will keep on worshipping the 
great soul he found behind the face, and still 
refuse to believe it is a mask concealing a rank 
hypocrite who used him for a convenience and 
then tossed him aside as she would a withered 
flower. He has the faces everywhere about the 
house, on his desk, in his watch, on his bureau, 
everywhere, and he just loves and loves and 
loves, and hopes and hopes and hopes. He hasn't 
had a minute's hard feelings toward you — only 
deepest sympathy and sorrow. Yours while life 
lasts. Charles. " 

At this point in the proceedings it seemed 




Amy, When She was Graduated from the 
McCormick College. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 65 

advisable that some of the relatives be informed, 
and I sent the next letter to Samuel L. Black, 
on the old homestead, in Saline county, Mo., the 
brother who has managed the family finances 
since the death of the father, in 1890, and has 
been particularly good to the girls, in return for 
which the viper, who took my sweet wife away, 
tried to make trouble for him by advising his 
wife she should get a divorce because he de- 
clined to leave the farm on Belle's advice for the 
benefit of a town training for his children. She 
was so angry about it that she told me he had 
scandalized the family by his amours, before his 
marriage and had finally married a girl who was 
beneath the family standard. Copies of the letter 
were also sent to Salt Lake City and Sacramento 
sisters : 

"Some Things a few People Ought to Know: 
If there was ever a she-devil on earth its name 
is Virginia Belle Black. A hypocrite of the first 
water; a sanctimonious busybody who does the 
most contemptible things under pretense of at- 
tempting to do good ; a female who takes advan- 
tage of the fact to do things which would cause 
her head to be shot off were she a male ; a gossip, 
who, for three and a half years has sat at my 
table, lived in my house, accepted my hospitality, 
pretended for the purpose of making an im- 
pression on her mother, that she loved her 
brother Will, and pretended to be grateful to 
me for aiding him in overcoming a bad habit ; 
then, as soon as her mother was gone and she had 



66 THE STOLEN WIFE 

the bulk of her money, began scheming to per- 
suade my wife, her sister, to desert me, and fin- 
ally worked her up to the point of hatred for 
their brother that she told me I must either 
throw him out or they would leave. She made 
Amy say. she and Belle would never have done 
anything for Will but for mother's sake. Now 
that mother is gone thev do not respect her well- 
known wishes, yet they pretend they loved her. 
It is all in keeping with what Belle said about 
her sister Sally (wife of Jerrold Letcher, clerk of 
the U. S. court, Salt Lake City), viz: 'She did 
not want mother at her house because she was 
ashamed of her/ It is in keeping with what she 
said about Sam, who has looked after her in- 
terests like a father: 'We told Iza (Sam's wife) 
to get a divorce.' She said: 'Sam is trying to 
get Dave (a brother in Slater) to make a will 
giving his money to his (Sam's) children/ It 
looks as if she wanted Dave's money herself. It 
is in keeping with what she tells about Mr. 
Phillips, of Qak Park, California, putting red 
pepper where it would cause inconvenience to 
his wife, just for petty spite. It is like a good 
many other things she has said and done. I 
knew her all the time. I 'spotted' her the first 
time I ever met her, and told her so then. She 
never forgave me and has now, temporarily, got 
even — by wrecking her sister's happiness. Amy 
says this is not true, that she doesn't care for 
me. I asked her why in a series of questions 
to which she has not replied, but she has given 
other evidence that she cares a lot for me. Amy 
may have ceased to love me. She may be all 
she says she is — the originator of the plan to 
get away ; but when I look at her picture I can't 



THE STOLEN WIFE 67 

believe that sweet face is a mask covering one 
of the vilest of human natures; I insist she is 
under a devilish influence that would sacrifice 
her rather than see her enjoy what she (the 
devil) will never get by daylight — a husband. 
She even makes Amy say to me that Will has 
me under his influence, when Amy knows he 
irritates me sometimes with a tendency rather 
to the opposite effect ; but I can use him in my 
work and he is all right when Belle is not here 
to nag the life out of him about 'how he mis- 
treated mother' and a lot of other things of 
which the less said the sooner mended. She 
even irritates Amy until she breaks out and 
scolds — then the hypocrite says nothing but 
looks humble and Amy relents and has cried 
about it in my arms many a time. Damn that 
hypocrite. I have told her I will put in some 
licks getting even and I will carry it to the 
limit if I have to publish a 'Novel Novel, or 
the True History of a She-Devil.' To fix the 
responsibility for this I subscribe, Charles Mc- 
Cormick." 

About this time there was a disappearance. 
I wrote my wife asking her to take a trip to 
Milwaukee with me for a few days to see if 
we could not adjust our affairs outside of others' 
influences; but I received no reply. I learned 
later, that as soon as my sister, Mrs. 'G. Allan' 
Rowe, 355 Utica street, Buffalo, N. Y., heard of 
the trouble, by letter from the girls (Belle 
knowing they were reporting to people who 
having criticised and complained of Will, while 



68 THE STOLEN WIEE 

in my house), she telegraphed them to visit 
Buffalo at once. The reason will appear later. 
She chose her way and she will have to take 
the consequences, as will also her 'man gossip' 
husband, 'G. Allan' Rowe, a 'genito-urinary' 
doctor, of Buffalo, who three years ago had to 
spend about ten thousand dollars to get out of 
a charge of using Uncle Sam's mails for queer 
purposes. This scoundrel, whom I have never 
harmed in any manner whatever, except to 
arousd his jealousy at my success in legitimate 
lines, improved his opportunity to gossip, and 
told my wife that I am a "sex pervert/' when 
he knows absolutely nothing about me that 
could be construed to my discredit. Such an 
idea could only originate in the mind of a 
genito-urinary doctor, and he has laid himself 
open to prosecution for criminal libel by ad- 
mitting in a letter to me that he said it. When 
Mrs. McCormick told a mutual friend of that 
speech she added : "I have never regarded 
Dr. Rowe as a normal man, from what I have 
seen and heard of him." He belongs to a 
very common breed, evidently. 

To this mutual friend my wife also said that 
she would return to me except for the fact that 
it would be an admission that Belle was in the 
wrong. On May 5 she wrote me: 

"Dear Charles — I received your letters and 
am not at this time attempting to answer them; 



THE STOLEN WIFE 69 

as I told you before it would be impossible under 
my present circumstances to do that. Then it 
is unsatisfactory to attempt to reach any com- 
mon ground by letter. Do not worry about me 
or my present situation, for I am perfectly well, 
for which I am most thankful. Sincerely, 
Amy." 

May 8th I wrote her: 

"Amy Dear — Here are a few things you will 
be heartily ashamed of when your love for your 
husband overpowers the vile influence you are 
under : 

"1. The wilful and false assumption that I 
ordered you out of the house. 

"2. Your conduct with reference to your 
meals the day after it was decided to go. 

"3. The return here after the picture, the 
abuse you gave me, telling me the man you mar- 
ried is dead. 

"4. The deception about the pictures and the 
charge that I am and was dishonorable because 
I wanted your picture badly enough to lie to the 
photographer to get the negatives. 

"5. In declaring I had mistreated you worse 
than anyone ever did before ; in declaring that 
A married you for help and hadn't found it, so 
didn't want you any more, when I was begging 
you to not go all the time you were abusing me, 
and was trying to convince you that I had never 
said a word about your going away from me 
for good. 

"6. The charge that Will has me hypnotized, 
when you know that I made my school a suc- 
cess fifteen years before I ever saw him; and 



70 THE STOLEN WIFE 

you know he often antagonizes me, hence has 
no influence. 

"7. The expressed hatred for Will is being 
untrue to your mother's memory and puts you 
and Belle in the light of catering to mother to 
get her money — as soon as she is gone you 
cease to respect her wishes. 

"8. You do not answer my letters — you can't 
— yet you write that you want to talk with me. 
I offer a plan and am ignored. I refuse to be- 
lieve that my 'baby girl' has it in her soul to 
do all these contemptible things. It is she who 
is under the bad influence of a she-devil. When 
she comes to herself she will find a loving wel- 
come at home. I do not believe she would wor- 
ry anyone wilfully, even an enemy, as she has 
worried her husband during the last three weeks. 
If she would and did it wilfully and maliciously, 
she is indescribable. I can't believe it. Loving 
and hoping, Charles. " 

May 9th I received the following: 

"Dear Charles — I received your note in Buf- 
falo, asking me to go to Milwaukee. I did not 
answer because I was just starting for Chicago. 
I am, quite tired after a busy visit and some 
sight-seeing. Later, after a little rest, if de- 
sirable we might arrange a meeting. If you 
wish I will drop you a line. Sincerely, Amy." 

On her arrival in Chicago she sent for a mu- 
tual friend, Dr. Shoults, to meet her at the Pal- 
mer House. The following letter tells what oc- 
curred there : 

"May 10. Amy Darling— Dr. Shoults told 
me last night of his talk with you and among 



THE STOLEN WIFE 71 

other things he said you told him that if you 
came back it would be admitting Belle is to 
blame. Would you sacrifice your happiness and 
mine for so small a proposition? He also said 
you appear very bitter at Will and blame him 
for the trouble, saying that he asks me ques- 
tions at the table and thus 'toadys* to me. Would 
you stay away from your husband because of so 
small a thing as that? He says that while you 
and he were talking and you were crying, Belle 
came over and said: 'I don't want you coming 
here making my sister unhappy.' While she was 
here she constantly roasted Will for advising 
you against going and said she didn't want him 
to talk to you. I rather think she didn't. She 
realized her position was so weak that Will, 
even, might make you see it. Will says for you 
and me to sacrifice him, any way to get together. 
Does Belle say as much? Which has done the 
most for you, Belle or me? Which do you love 
most? I say if you will be happier with Belle 
than with me we will not quarrel about it, but 
I will step aside and wish you all the good you 
can get out of it. But I love you, dear, and I 
am sure that some day you will awake to dis- 
cover that Will's offenses are only grouchiness, 
which make him unpleasant often, but that 
Belle's are 'butt-in-skiness.' I know, not from 
him but from my own observation, that she 
was the aggressor nearly always. I can prove 
it by specific items. One is that she assumes 
a guardianship over you and presumes to tell 
Will and Dr. Shoults not to talk to you. I 
ought to sue her and bring the matter all out 
in court; but I spare her on ypur account be- 



72 THE STOLEN WIFE 

cause I love you so much. Sorrowfully, 
Charles." 

The next day I received a letter from Belle, 
the she-devil. It is signed, "with malice toward 
none." Every paragraph in it breathes malice. 
She even boasts her power over Amy when she 
says : "You do not increase Amy's respect for 
you in making false charges," referring to my 
calling her a "she-devil," etc. But the letter 
will tell its own story. It is given verbatim, save 
the little cramped writing, which indicates her 
character : 

"5910 Michigan Ave., Chicago, May 10, 1910. 

"Dr. McCormick : In regard to the charge that 
I have influenced Amy against you, I am con- 
tent with a clear conscience ; but it may be best 
that I state the fact of my absolute innocence on 
this point, emphatically, in black & white. I have 
promised myself all along to do this — 'thinking 
possibly the time might come when you could 
attend with fairness to my statement of a few 
facts. I do not know that the time has, or will 
come — it appears hopeless. But here are the 
facts : 

"Until three days before I left your house I 
had spoken no word of criticism against you to 
Amy, not one. I had no wish to. 

"I have been amazed at your injustice & un- 
reason, & regret that I was so disgusted with it 
when we parted as to express it in contemptuous 
words. I only mean that I regret the words — 
injustice & false accusations will, no doubt, al- 
ways disgust me & I can't regret that. 




Amy, Ready for an Outing. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 73 

"I was surprised, sadly, a few weeks ago, 
when Amy said to me (we had been speaking of 
an old friend of ours, one who is an old maid 
[herself] because she could not forget an early 
love affair) — words to this effect; 'I think you 
who had early disappointments are so much bet- 
ter off than w T e who married/ Imagine — stop & 
think five minutes — what it would mean to have 
one whose happiness is dear to you so reveal an 
unhappiness vou had not guessed ! [truly remark- 
able] 

"I certainly hoped she had made no mistake 
in marrying you, & surely I could have no reason 
for wishing to separate you. I have wondered 
so many times what reason you supposed I could 
have. You certainly gave me a comfortable 
home & a life of ease. Why should I wish to 
deprive her & myself of greater comfort than 
we had known before (in a material sense), or 
shall expect again? 

"And after your troubles were made known 
to me, I was a friend to you both, & made every 
suggestion I could think of to prevent a hasty 
separation, fearing it might wreck your mutual 
happiness. Knowing I had been mentioned to you 
by Will as the cause of your trouble I offered to 
go away (to which you objected) ; then I sug- 
gested that you take the board money I owed 
you & take Amy on a trip — you said you could 
not leave your business ; then as the best avail- 
able plan it was decided she & I go on a trip 
to Cal. — which I had suggested, hoping she 
might feel differently when she came back. You 
upset this plan — 'Besides', I said to her Svhile 
people are sometimes unhappy together, they are 
more so when separated' — But when she said 



74 THE STOLEN WIFE 

she would rather be buried alive than stay there 
under the circumstances, I felt I could do no 
other than I did — simply help her pack up her 
little possessions & get away. 

"It is painfully hard for her of course, (noth- 
ing hurts: worse I think that to find our ideal so 
different from the real) & as a human being I 
dislike to see it made unnecessarily hard: — as 
seemed to me the case Sund., when Dr. S. told 
her of your grief — as it appeared ta him. That 
was my only reason for saying I did not wish 
him to make her unhappy. Perhaps he forgot 
to tell you that I also said that I did not wish 
any consideration for me to have the least in- 
fluence in keeping Amy from going back to you 
if she wished, & that her judgment & feeling 
should decide that. 

"Of course, he, you, & Will, may, so far as 
I am concerned talk to her whenever she likes. 
I am no guardian. 

"Your charge that I am a 'butt-in-sky' is, 
like many others wholly without support in 
my conduct : I care nothing about them. But 
I offer you the friendly hint that you do not 
increase Amy's respect for you in making false 
charges, calling names, &c — She read this to 
me a few days ago from 'Fra Elbertus' — 
'When you call a man a bad name, you are that 
thing, not he/ You will need no help in guess- 
ing what caller of bad names she had in mind. 

"No one regrets more than I that you could not 
make her happy. I hoped for it, wished for it, & did 
all I could to that end. Nor do I blame you 
thorny, for I do not believe you can be just 
yet that self-controlled, & always plainly honest 
man she believed you could & would be. But 



THE STOLEN WIFE 75 

you have high ideals, & you have already some 
of the best qualities a man can have — kindness 
in some ways to one you love ; generosity toward 
all (financially) ; & your appreciation of & good- 
ness to our dear mother, we shall always be 
glad to remember. Please do not think me un- 
appreciative of your kindness to me — for I am 
not ungrateful, altho your great injustice makes 
me forget it sometimes. 

"No, I did not roast Will for advising Amy 
against leaving you; nor do nor say about forty 
other contemptible things you charge me with — 
and the worst is you know many of the accusa- 
tions are false. 

"As to sacrifice — I cannot possible be sacrificed 
by any decision Amy may make that will secure 
— or that she thinks will secure her happiness. 
I never had, & have now, no advice to offer; 
& felt that she must know better than anyone 
else possibly can what she wishes to do. 

"You need not disturb yourself with the idea 
that I care to interest myself in anyone's mail. 
Your imagination as to my character is wonder- 
ful. | ' ! <• 

"With malice toward none, Virginia Black/' 

My reply to her follows : 

"Chicago, May 13, 1910. 
"Belle Black, 5910 Michigan Ave. : 
"I replied briefly to yours of the 10th, but 
am taking the time to go into the matter to tell 
you that you evidently do not realize that you 
are about to have more trouble than you ever 
had in your life. Your methods have been tol- 
erated so long that your 'clear conscience' no- 
tion must be amputated. 



76 THE STOLEN WIFE 

"First, the 'unhappiness' you say Amy con- 
fessed to you a few weeks ago was caused by 
you. There is no doubt in my mind that you 
love her, but you are so jealously selfish that 
you want her all to yourself and you are bound 
to have her even though you sacrifice her hap- 
piness — for Amy loves me. She found me when 
I was sorely tried. She has been my mainstay 
and had mother lived you would not have dared 
do what you have done. You can never make 
me believe Amy would do the things she has 
done in the last four weeks were she not under 
the most despicable influence — yours. 

"Second, when you say that 'until three days 
before you left' my house you had spoken no 
word of criticism against me you lie. I have a 
number of proofs of it and will produce them 
when I get ready — and will defy refutation. 

"Third, you have been 'amazed' at my 'in- 
justice & unreason/ You will be yet further 
'amazed' at what I will do to you if you persist 
in this diabolical crime of stealing my sweet 
wife away from me. 

"Fourth, you refer to what she read from the 
'Fra.' Did you ever stop to think that when 
you made her say Will is a 'scoundrel/ a 'villain/ 
etc., the same interpretation would fit you? I 
suspect not. You have gossiped to us about 
Sam and Sally and almost all of your family. 
You profess a 'conscience' ; yet A knowing your 
good mother's wishes relative to Will, you 
try to drive him out into the world almost as 
soon as she is dead — and you have her money. 
How would you like to have that published to 
the world? You told me that mother began to 
suspect me before she died. You lie, you viper! 



THE STOLEN WIFE 77 

The last physical act of her life was to try to 
fan me. Mother loved me as I loved her. 

"Fifth, you say you offered to go away and I 
objected. Again your lie. You have been telling 
Amy from time to time that you did not like the 
way things were going here and you thought 
you would go away. Thus you played on her 
love for you to turn her against me. When she 
worried about it that worried me, and once 1 
told you, I believe, that if you loved her you 
would cease that talk. It has been my intention 
to get away from you as much of the time as 
my school duties would permit, for I have noted 
your devilish influence on the girl who is more 
like her mother than all the rest put together. 
I worship my wife. You are worrying her to 
distraction. I will punish you to the last limit 
if you do not stop it. She loves me. It crops 
out in spite of you. You persuade her she is 
not in condition to answer my letters. You 
keep her from taking a couple of days trip with 
me to talk it all over. You seek to discourage 
Dr. S. from; seeing her. You have done all you 
can to make our separation permanent. You 
are doing all you can all the time. You know 
I have always been good to her. You admit in 
your letter that I gave you a 'good home and a 
life of ease/ How are you repaying me? By tell- 
ing Dr. S. you do not wish any consideration of 
you to have the least influence in keeping Amy 
from coming back ; then you see to it that she is 
influenced to not want to come. She knows I 
need her in my life. She knows she needs me. 
If you would let her come to me on a little trip 
she will come home. She knows she had no 



78 THE STOLEN WIFE 

just cause for leaving and so do you. Your 
selfishness prevents consideration of her. 

"I pledge you the most bitter fruits from the 
seeds you have planted. If she leaves me for good 
it is all your doings. I shall have lost my life. 
I will publish the facts broadcast and follow you 
to the ends of the earth to hold you up to the 
scorn of honest people. I know your history and 
your little acts, from the petty things you did 
here — going out for your meals the next morn- 
ing after you decided you had been 'ordered out' 
of the house — you are a liar and you know it — 
away back to the time you visited Dr. LeRoy 
Jones people as his fiance and they decided they 
would rather their son had chosen the other girl 
(Amy). I will go into such scathing details I 
will raise your hair. If you desire to have the 
peop 1 e of Saline, of Pettis, of Utah, of California, 
of Montana, of Buffalo, of Evanston and else- 
where know you as you are just keep this up 
four weeks. If you don't just keep this letter 
to yourself and advise Amy to come home and 
try — first to take a few days' trip and talk. You 
may try to argue that if I hurt you I hurt her. 
I reply I am fighting a devil with fire and if any- 
one else gets hurt their feelings are, possibly, 
as invulnerable as mine. When she permits you 
to influence her against her husband to whom 
she owes her life she is doing a wrong — I be- 
lieve without the ability to help it. You are a 
criminal to traffic in her love. 

"You say I 'do not increase Amy's respect' for 
me when I apply epithets to you. That is a little 
strange ; you seem to increase her respect for 
you by applying them to me and to your brother 
who has been able to overcome a bad habit while 



THE STOLEN WIFE 79 

you have not. Don't dare plead that because I 
love Amy I shall spare you, for if Amy sacrifices 
me for love of you and I sacrifice her for hate 
of you, we are not yet even for she has two loves 
and I have none. 

"You pretend such horror of the sex ques- 
tion, yet you cater to Grace Moore, whom you 
know is living with a man she is not married to. 
I say that is her business — but you, who butt 
in on the affairs of those who have always been 
good to you, have made the most of your troubles 
by criticizing our teaching of anatomy and physi- 
ology — and at the same time almost breaking 
your neck to catch a husband — purely a sex prop- 
osition. Oh ! you hypocrite ! Retribution shall 
overtake and overwhelm you. I should bring 
suit against you, and will not promise not to. 
You pretend a 'conscience/ but violate the law 
in the matter of settling your mother's estate — 
to save a few dollars and avoid the assessor in 
Saline county as you have been doing for years. 
Give me my wife or I will expose you thoroughly. 

"You quarreled with Charlie the cook at the 
other house and I discharged him on your ac- 
count before you had been in my home sixty 
days. Herman, the house man, says he could 
not please you; if he left a window up it was 
wrong; if he put it down that was wrong. When 
Amy and I were away last summer you fussed at 
Arthur, the cook, until he was about to leave — 
he said he only stayed because he promised Amy 
he would be here when we camje back — Amy 
knows this for he told her and she told me. This 
entire trouble was caused by your nagging Will, 
even to wanting to select his clothes. Your con- 
stant harassing because of his acts when he was 



80 THE STOLEN WIFE 

not responsible is contemptible. You even made 
Amy tell him his word would not be accepted 
because he has been in the asylum. You know 
he was not insane; that he had himself com- 
mitted and was released at his own request. He 
is showing himself far more of a man than you 
are a woman. You are simply a morbid female. 
You make Amy talk of 'Will's horrible career/ 
It never was a marker to your horrible career as 
a trouble maker. 

"You are so absolutely tactless and insulting 
to those you come in contact with that no one 
loves you, except Amy; and when you saw that 
I was getting my affairs in shape to have more 
time with her you hurried and stole her away by 
creating trouble. You felt you have money 
enough between you to get along. If you ever 
lose it come back to me and I'll help you. Re- 
member that while you have been enjoying the 
'life of comfort and ease' which costs me twenty 
dollars a day, your despised brother Will has 
been helping me earn it. The world shall know 
all about it — unless you bring Amy back. I'll be 
liberal. I'll share her with you. But you can't 
have her all the time without awful penalty in 
the way of exposure. Charles." 

Then I wrote to my wife : 

"My Dear Wife. The only Woman I ever 
Loved : I have never done you a wrong. I have 
not deceived you in any way. Your amazing in- 
gratitude and refusal to assign a cause for your 
acts during the past month stuns me. I have 
just recovered physically enough to be out of 
bed. Mentally I do not expect to recover. You 
say you are responsible. I leave you with your 



THE STOLEN WIFE 81 

conscience — if you have one. If you ever dis- 
cover you are mistaken come home and your 
old 'pappy' will be happy again. Loving and 
forgiving I am your husband, Charles." 

Then came a long one from Amy, from Se- 
dalia, Mo. I will take it up paragraph by para- 
graph, just as I replied to it: 

"1014 Osa^e St., Sedalia, Mo., May 16 : Dear 
Charles : I feel helpless on top of crushed, over 
the outcome of all my hopes, but it was not until 
after an honest, patient effort, hoping till the last 
for better things, then have you turn on me, re- 
fusing to see me 'only at home, nowhere else.' " 

Now, my dear, you know we had an agreement 
that if either became dissatisfied it should be 
stated frankly and we would quit without a fuss 
remaining friend's. Your manner on leaving, as- 
suming you were "ordered" to leave when you 
know absolutely it is not so, was not in accord 
with that agreement. Your return to the house 
the next Wednesday would have been in bad 
taste if you had been "ordered" to leave; and 
your return after leaving of your own volition 
simply told me that you still cared for me in 
spite of the damnable influence you were under. 
You say you made an "honest, patient effort." In 
my letter to you, August 16, 1906, you will find 
this paragraph : "I offer you love, a home and 
health and happiness if I can fulfill my hopes. 
But when I am reminded of my many faults I 



82 THE STOLEN WIFE 

sometimes doubt my ability to be all you could 
reasonably ask, try as I might. I think I could be 
that with some loving help and a spirit of forbear- 
ance when you know I have no faults to find 
with you/' An earlier paragraph says : "I need 
a wife who is not hampered by ideas that will 
antagonize mine at every turn. Who will un- 
derstand I want no secrets between us. Who 
will not expect me to be an archangel until I 
pass to the next sphere. Who will have the faith 
in me that I give her. * * * * Who will 
not demand that I attempt the impossible by 
changing all the character I have to something 
possibly ideal, but certainly not practical. Who 
will realize there is a healthy standard, mental 
and physical. Who will not assume that all con- 
cessions should comje from me should we chance 
to differ. Who will put herself in my place when 
she sees things to criticize. " Have you done that? 
As to my writing you that I would see you "at 
home, nowhere else" you know, my sweetheart, 
that the letter containing that expression was 
written after you had paid no attention to my 
letter inviting you to go to Milwaukee — I did 
not know you were not in the city. You have 
another letter altering that proposition since I 
knew you did not get the first in time. Don't 
you think you struck a childish argument that 
time? When I received your letter this morning 
I telegraphed you to come home and I would 



THE STOLEN WIFE 83 

put Will out if it wrecked the business. Now 
I have a reply that I must come to Kansas City 
and meet you in a department store. It cannot be 
my Amy doing all these things. I couldn't do it. 
I wouldn't go to the Palmer house again. Only 
sports frequent such meeting places — and those 
who do not know any better, poor things. I 
would meet you almost any place and take a 
little trip to talk it over, but I have to look out 
for expenses and all these little things cost money, 
needlessly. If I lose my wife because she de- 
mands all the concessions I'll have to lose. 

You say : "After being gone from your 
house two weeks your letter proposing a trip to 
Milwaukee came and was forwarded to Buffalo. 
On my return to Chicago I found the letter con- 
taining the above decision (referring to seeing you 
at home only) ; there seemed nothing left for me 
but sit judged as untruthful, disloyal and a dozen 
other things you have charged me with. Your 
second came as I was leaving Chicago, too late." 

I have charged you with little save that you 
submitted to the influence of one whom I regard 
as a wilful criminal. If you assume it all I can't 
help it. But I can^t believe my Amy would do 
such things of her own free will. Even were she 
to make oath to it, I would still think it was the 
'influence/ If she is guilty she is disloyal and un- 
truthful, but I love her so I would forgive her if 
she asked it. 



84 THE STOLEN WIFE 

You say: "Possibly this is another useless 
effort on my part, but I have promised myself 
the relief that comes from having done all I 
could, and you will have to admit that I have not 
had an easy place to fill, as well as yourself. I 
will mention a few things and I trust the man- 
hood I have felt you possessed will sometime 
awaken to your position in this affair." 

I have never complained that I had a hard 
place to fill save that it kept me from having as 
much time with you as I wanted, and I was get- 
ting matters in shape for that — changing my paper 
to a quarterly and getting out my diet tables. 

You say: "I have never claimed at any time 
that I took Will into our house for any other than 
two reasons: First, with the hope to relieve 
mother from the strain she had endured, because 
of his horrible career; second, because you 
suggested the effort might be worth while as 
he might make you a good teacher. He has al- 
ways been disagreeable toward me and contin- 
ued it after he came to our house, a fact you 
have seen and lamented." 

Your second proposition is a ridiculous one. 
I never thought of him as a possible teacher until 
after he conquered his habit. You confess you 
were willing I should take .on a lot of trouble if 
you might relieve your mother of worry ; you con- 
fess that, now, when I have succeeded after all 
other efforts had failed, and made a man of him, 
and arranged my work so that I can use him 
to advantage to me, to himself, to the school and 



THE STOLEN WIFE 85 

to the public, you would drive him, your brother, 
out into the world to satisfy your spite against 
him. Would you talk that way if your mother, 
whom you profess to love, were here? It is not 
my sweet wife writing such stuff as that. He 
was "grouchy" toward you sometimes and I 
stopped it quickly — his last offense to you was his 
tactless effort to be nice to you. I have told him 
of that too, and he will not do it again. I made 
him/ a proposition to work for a certain sum 
and his board. He accepted. He does the work. 
I must do my part. If I send him outside to 
board I must pay for it and give him as good as 
he gets here. Thus your demands increase my 
expenses. He helps to make the money which 
pays our expenses. You have been a sweet com- 
forter to me, and paid your way that way. Belle 
has done nothing but the marketing, and I do 
that now in twenty minutes daily — she also dis- 
turbed the peace by her criticisms of everybody 
and everything about the house. 

You say : "You knew much of Will's record 
before he came, you have seen much since for 
yourself. You have seen his treatment of mother 
and you have chided him repeatedly, appealing to 
his manhood. He caused her anxiety up to the 
last day of her life. You have urged us two 
girls to 'fly back at him', 'give him as good as 
he sends', etc. I refused with the hope of 
peace and the best interest of you and the 
business at heart." 



86 THE STOLEN WIFE 

You have certainly made up for lost time since. 
Was I not good to take him when I knew of his 
"record," for the sake of my wife's and her moth- 
er's comfort? Have I not held him pretty level? 
Would you advise me to wreck my business be- 
cause he has his "grouches" — caused by Belle al- 
ways ? You did not hold your peace toward him 
very hard the days immediately prior to your 
departure. I heard you tell him no one would 
believe anything he might say because he has been 
in an institution for the insane; that he is a 
"villain," a "scoundrel" who "abused his moth- 
er." I never heard him abuse her; he worried 
her by his past conduct and her concern for his 
future — constantly stirred by Belle; but you are 
unfaithful to your mother's memory when you 
want him removed from the influence of the one 
man your mother had confidence in and love for 
— me. 

t You say : "He has irritated you so continu- 
ously that you said he would drive you crazy 
and you would rather run the school alone. He 
kept you in terror, not knowing what he would 
do next. He annoyed you in the office till there 
has been almost constant trouble, especially on 
vacation days." 

He did all those things until about the holi- 
days when we had the big rumpus about it. He 
insisted in going out as my body-guard until it 
became irksome and I told him if he offended 



THE STOLEN WIFE 87 

again I would dismiss him if it hurt the school. 
He stopped and you know it. You also know 
that his intentions were good all the time ; I told 
you that and told you that was the only reason 
I stood for it as long as I did. 

You say : "You have said it looked as if he 
did these things not with malicious intent. If 
not at any rate he certainly did not take into 
consideration your responsibility and physical 
condition adn not try to worry you/' 

Have you been taking into consideration the 
same things during the last four weeks, my dear? 
When you roast Will you are hitting yourself 
severe blows, because you are asking me to add 
to my labors when I am overtaxed already. 

You say: "You may see some day this is 
something more than 'grouchiness'. He has gos- 
siped about the family, prejudicing you against 
those whom you have never seen. Why? Has 
said I have tried to run your business, was a 
nagger, and that the Blacks always want to re- 
form everybody. It is true of him for he has 
tried to act as umpire for me ever since we took 
him in, even in spite of my contempt for his 
type of character. Has contemptuously said 
I want to make a Sunday-school boy of you 
when you swore about the house ; yet, if you 
will notice, this is an accomplishment he ap- 
proves of but does not indulge in. Why is 
this?" 

Of course you did not try to run my business 
when you demanded that Will be dismissed or 



83 THE STOLEN WIFE 

you would leave the house and never return. 
Of course you did not try to run my business 
when you demanded that I let you blue-pencil 
my copy for the "Ophthalmologist". Of course 
you did not try to run my business when you 
demanded that I stop teaching sex ills in my 
school because Belle said she would leave us if 
I did not stop it. And still she is crazy for a 
husband. Does she want an unsexed one? I 
am glad to note that you admit inadvertently 
that Will has one virtue — he doesn't swear. 
Possibly he thinks I do enough for both. 

You say : "Why did he call attention to Will 
Croff's short-comings — a poor ignorant boy, who 
has made the most he could of his poor advan- 
tage, yet would sit up at night with him, smok- 
ing in his room; this against your orders and the 
rules of your house. Was it to make the case 
easy for you to handle, to lighten your burden 
in the treatment of his epilepsy." 

It didn't help, but it is a little strange that I 
never heard of this before. Did you know it all 
this time? When the boy, your sister's child, 
had to be fired because he would not obey in- 
structions and thus give us a chance to remove 
the causes of his fits, this despised brother of 
yours spent his own money for expenses to Se- 
dalia and return to take the young smart-aleck 
home, and I gave his mother every dollar that 
had been paid me. I got nothing for my work 




ffi 



X! 



a 






THE STOLEN WIFE 89 

nor for the boy's board. This sounds pretty 
coming from my wife who has not only been 
given a good home and all the love I have in my 
soul, but who has had an income of about $2 a 
day from books which I wrote and gave her the 
income from for spending money. 

You say: "You recall his drug sprees, both 
of which you said were without excuse; one at 
a time when you had a house full, embarrass- 
ing you when you needed his help. I re- 
quested him to remain in his room. Another 
time following one of your fusses- you ordered 
him out and he got drunk, took this way to 
enlist your sympathies." 

That was the time at Christmas, when I had 
the final talk with him which settled matters and 
they have remained settled. 

You say: "Did he do all these things be- 
cause of his loyalty and friendship for you? 
Was it his interest in you and your cause that he 
did his work in the class-room so long his own 
way, regardless of your wishes? Why has he 
questioned the validity of our marriage license? 
Was it because of his faith in your integrity? 

I have never asked him or anyone else for 
loyalty if they do not give it freely. I do not 
even ask it of you. But when you bear such 
evident malice toward him you are doing your- 
self no credit and your mother would be heart- 
broken could she know it. As to the validity ot 
our marriage where was your loyalty that you 



90 THE STOLEN WIFE 

never told me of this before? It is the first I 
ever heard of it. If you and I are satisfied no 
one else should lose any sleep should they? 

You say : "I have seen the thing he was do- 
ing for a long time, and because I was a friend 
to you and your life work, and warned you 
against letting him gossip, talk against me, you 
then turned on me, your wife, the best friend 
you ever had, whom you promised to love and 
protect, the one you say has done more for you 
than anyone else, whose presence brings you 
peace, one whom you say your admiration is al- 
most like worship, whose mentality means 
much to you, the woman w r ho saved your life 
as you often expressed it, the one who saved 
you from being worse hurt if not killed by 
the Busse sluggers, but who has never thrown 
up to you what I have done as if it was an act 
of charity. The one who saw and appreciated 
your goodness and was so happy to fill a place 
in your life and work, where I could help you 
and try to repay you for what you had done 
for me." 

You have "thrown up" to me repeatedly that 
I ran away when w T e met the sluggers and thus 
showed you regarded me as a coward, when as a 
matter of fact I knew and you know you were 
in no danger at all and that I would have been 
murdered had I remained. As it was I was 
pretty well knocked to pieces — but it took three 
of the big cowards to do it, and they were armed 
at that. If they had shown any violence toward 
you after I got away I would have returned, but 



THE STOLEN WIFE 91 

you came walking away unmolested. In tackling 
the Busse gang I proved I am no coward as any- 
body in Chicago will testify. If I ever tackle 
them, again I will chase them out of the city. 
Were I to undertake to enumerate all the sweet 
things I have found in you it would take me so 
long that I will only say they are enough to 
smother out of sight all your mistakes — even 
the present one — and I would enjoy you and the 
sweets. Passing the other things, if you are 
willing to forget Will's past and let him make 
good if he can and go — as he must — if he can't. 
His pupils all like him; he is a good teacher; 
he is stuborn in some of his ways, and I have 
to let him know I am the head of this insti- 
tution sometimes ; but, go into any business 
house and ask the manager if he dismisses 
his best help every time it does not come up 
to his standard or to his wishes. If he says 
he does I'll take to the bottom of the lake and 
give up the chase. 

You say: "Ask yourself if he did all this 
and dozens of other things I cannot mention 
here because he saw we were happy, and he 
wanted to promote that happiness and took that 
way to do it. Just recall the things which oc- 
curred the two weeks before I left and see if it 
was the part of a friend. Our first serious dif- 
ference and our last was because of his part in 
our lives." 

Thank you, my darling, you have proved Belle 



92 THE STOLEN WIFE 

an infernal liar over her own signature, when she 
says : "I was surprised sadly a few weeks ago 
when Amy said to me words to this effect: 'I 
think you who had early disappointments are so 
much better off than we w T ho married.' " I felt 
she was a liar, now you establish it. I do not 
know what you mean with reference to Will 
unless it was when he went up to your room 
and begged you to not take the step you and 
Belle proposed to do. Then Belle stepped up and 
told him she wished he would let you alone. As 
to him gossiping about you, it is absolutely 
false. He did not do it ever. I would not have 
permitted it. As to his influencing me against 
you, that is also false, because he nor anyone 
else, save yourself, could do that and it would 
crowd you to do it. You know his influence 
over me is negative and your whole letter proves 
that you know it. You are just letting a wild 
prejudice run away with you. He shall not 
bother you. He offers to go away or do anything 
to get you to come back to me. You ask me to as- 
sume a load that would not only overwork me 
but would preclude the possibility of our taking 
vacations as we could do if he is here. I think 
my baby girl, I am the best qualified to run the 
business — and I can handle Bill. 

You say: "The one who appreciated your 
system and always will and felt an interest second 
only to your own ; and was willing to give up 



THE STOLEN WIFE 93 

everything to the good of the school, to econo- 
mize that we might further the system." 

Would it be economy to assume a board bill 
for Will outside of the house? Would it be 
economy to let my best helper go because he is 
not perfect as a man? 

You say: "The one who saw a selfish, so- 
called friend creep into your life, saw you make 
a confident of a man who was talking about you 
when he could, this man who has never been a 
friend to anyone, saw him maliciously or other- 
wise manage you so you were not yourself, prej- 
udice you against your own wife. This I saw 
and I would not sit by and not offer a protest. 
As a reward for my friendship, my loyalty as 
your companion, you turned on me and said I 
was like your former wife for whom you have 
expressed contempt; told me I lied; and 'all 
women are alike' ; and finally said for me to 'go 
to hell'. This outburst was the result of a fuss 
you and Will had, which always made you un- 
pleasant to live with." 

Belle has been trying to get rid of Will ever 
since mother died. She never did like me as my 
details in letters to her have shown. As to the 
remarks you quote me as making, why did you 
not state the direct cause? You will remember 
that you were exhibiting rank jea 1 ousy toward 
your brother, and it became tiresome to me be- 
cause it was so absolutely groundless — the idea 
that he or anyone else could take your place with 
me ! — so I said you reminded me of "X". You 



94 THE STOLEN WIFE 

resented that in a manner so similar to some of 
her actions that it made me remark : "I guess all 
women are alike in some respects," but I had 
never had occasion to think of you in that class 
before. Then you got more angry and said: 
"One of these days, when I feel this way, I'll 
go away and if I do I'll never come back — and 
I will not leave you any address either." To 
this I responded : "Oh, you can go plumb to hell 
if you want to." I certainly regret that I ever 
allowed myself to grow angry enough to say that 
to you; but you know, sweetheart, I didn't say 
Td send you there. Did I, now. As to calling 
you a liar, that is false. You kept repeating the 
old story that Will had talked about you to me. 
I had denied it until I was tired of it, and when 
you repeated it I said: "That is a lie!" It is a 
lie, whoever says it. No one ever talked about 
you in any way that was not good. 

You say: "You recall how many nights you 
have gone to bed and could not sleep because he 
had been irritating you, and yet, when I would 
show you that Will was aggravating purposely, 
hoping you would see it and stop him ere he 
wrecked our home the above treatment was my 
reward." 

To this I beg to reply by pointing to our ante- 
marriage agreement that when I was not in a 
good humor was a poor time to talk to me, as 
one answer. The other is that the charge that 



THE STOLEN WIFE 95 

Will has ever tried to break our home or that he 
has ever attempted to prejudice me against my 
wife is a lie made out of whole cloth by some- 
body — I believe Belle Black, who has always been 
a thorn in my side and in everyone's else — even 
many times in Amy's so that she had to roast her 
almost as much as I have Will. 

You say: "What is a wife to understand by 
such treatment ? I said I would leave. Then you 
suggested I go for a short visit and come back 
and try it over. I said I would but I would not 
live under the same roof with Will. (Remember 
I did not ask you to lose your teacher.) You 
did not object but seemed glad to have me con- 
sent to return. You went out for a few minutes' 
walk with Will; on your return you gave me an 
unsigned typewritten statement of 'The Situa- 
tion' (we each have this) in which you decided 
in favor of Will against your wife, saying it 
would 'look like helF to have a brother live out- 
side, 'disgrace to the school', etc., further saying 
it is by a cause you got your wife and it was by 
the irony of fate that you should lose her by that 
cause, yet you are blaming Belle for our separa- 
tion." 

Belle's letters are sufficient to convict her; 
and your own statement, made many times when 
in the dumps, monthly, that if you ever went 
away you would never return, prompted me to 
express my belief in that behalf in writing which 
I handed to you in person, hence it needed no 
signature that I could see. I admit writing it 



96 THE STOLEN WIFE 

and I stand by it, and am glad I wrote it because 
it is prima facie evidence I never "ordered" you 
out. Further I have told you repeatedly that 
Will has had nothing to do with what I have 
written either before or after, save to hear what I 
had said in them, and to often advise me that I 
would better let the matter rest and not stir your 
anger more or I would lose you entirely. I have 
gone ahead because I have to bear the brunt of 
the result, and I will do it my own way. You 
know in your soul that Will nor no one has any 
influence over me if I conclude I am right, par- 
ticularly when I have to foot the bills., mistake 
or no mistake. Call on the Crosbys and leave 
Belle in a check-room somewhere so you will be 
allowed to think for yourself, and you will con- 
cede you are talking foolishly, when you say he 
influences me for or against you or anyone else. 
He never gossiped to me about his people half as 
much as you and Belle have, but I did not call 
your talk gossip because I thought I was being 
regarded as one of the family — I have met all of 
them but Aleck and Jerrold — I don't want to 
meet the latter. He is a cheap politician. Will 
has been away from home over fifteen years, and 
does not know enough of the family to gossip 
if he so desired. 

You say: "You talked to Dr. Shoults of our 
trouble, giving him still another cause and not a 
true reason for our separation, so in justice to 



THE STOLEN WIFE 97 

myself I told himi my side, showing him the 
statement of 'The Situation'. He said your posi- 
tion seemed clearly to favor Will. I then told him 
I objected to living with Will. He said: 'Why 
not board him outside'? I told him you said it 
would necessitate your paying him more salary. 
He replied: 'Men support families on what he 
gets.' Others who have regretted our separation 
have said it looks like a case of giving up a wife 
for business." 

My dearest girl: The above paragraph gives 
away your case entirely. You have admitted to 
me many times that the matter I mentioned to 
Dr. S. was one of the causes of occasional un- 
pleasantness — disappointment to you — and I ad- 
mit it was my fault; of course you were not nor- 
mal, from the effects of operations, but I was not 
either, from overwork. You state repeatedly in 
this letter that you left because of Will. Yet you 
have protested heretofore that you were "ordered 
out" and that you were "never more surprised" 
in your life. Come now, sweetheart, admit you 
wilfully misinterpreted the "Situation" and that 
there was nothing in it that could be construed as 
an "order" save in Belle's imagination. Dr. S. 
says he expressed no opinion on the meaning of 
the "Situation" but that he did say Will could 
live outside on his salary. I explained to him I 
had agreed to pay that salary and his board. 
That put a different phase on it to him as he will 
tell you if you ask him. He is a good friend. 



98 THE STOLEN WIFE 

He saw my distress and came to me telling me 
you had told him you were leaving, and were not 
going to California, as I had explained to the 
students the day you girls went out for meals ; he 
offered his services any way I could use him, but 
wrote you on his own initiative without my know- 
ing about it. You accuse me of talking to him. 
Why shouldn't I under the circumstances. He 
loves you and he loves me. He has seen us loving 
each other. You, it appears, have been talking to 
others, not our mutual friends, the Powells and 
the Rowes, for example, and they have told you 
"it looks like giving up a wife for business." I 
would like to have the photographs of these 
friends (?). If my business is the only means 
I have for the support of my wife, and she de- 
mands that I give up either it or her, I have no 
choice, for without it I would have to give her up. 

You say: "I did not ask for this change, in 
the home, not the business, on my own account 
or comfort, but because he constantly worried 
you, making you unpleasant to live with, unhappy 
and sick, all of which you have frequently said. 
I have not said much of the effect of this con- 
stant friction on my nerves, for I have hoped for 
an adjustment whereby we could all work to- 
gether and be happy." 

My dear, if you would only come home and 
try it a week as it is now, without Belle here to 
irritate him, you would see how it is. Will is so 
anxious to have you back for my happiness that 



THE STOLEN WIFE 99 

he would almost let you use him for a door-mat. 
I tell you he has not worried me since Christmas 
except as Belle has worried him, and I saw his 
"grouchiness" from it. 

You say: "You gave me the only course to 
follow. I did it. Then at my own instigation 
you met me at the hotel — after I had been gone 
almost two weeks, then after a little talk (during 
which you seemed impatient) you suggested I 
return under the same conditions that had caused 
our trouble. You said Will regretted my leaving, 
yet neither he nor you came near me to see if we 
could reach some understanding." 

Oh ! My sweetheart ! I was with you at the 
hotel an hour. I made you the proposition that as 
Belle was out and I claimed she had caused the 
trouble, if you would come back and try it over 
with one of the disturbers away, and if the other 
still troubled we would "fire" it. I even came 
home and made the proposition in writing and 
you refused. I was uneasy while talking to you 
on account of two things : One, the house de- 
tective sat within a few feet of us, having been 
called there by the housemaid in charge of the 
room when she evidently saw we were worried; 
the other was lest I should break down and cause 
a scene and a sensation in the papers. As to Will 
going to see you — or me, I tried to get you to go 
on a little trip with me ; you didn't go. When I 
broke down completely and went to bed last Fri- 
day night and couldn't get up the next day, Will 



100 THE STOLEN WIFE 

thought I was delirious because I told him what 
was going on in my head, and he begged me to 
let him go to you. In view of what you had said 
and what you have written, I felt if he went you 
would be doubly angry. 

You say : "Yet you profess to love me, 
telling me I am killing you, my treatment is 
'undeserved'. Who brought it about? Then 
to this object of your affection you write that 
our course toward Will puts us in the light 
of having catered to mother for her money. 
You know by marriage of either of the single 
girls the married one's portion was cut down 
and I did not receive sufficient to live on, but 
must provide for myself. Because of your lack 
of justice, in permitting anyone to talk of your 
companion, you have accused me of being 
guilty of the things you have done." 

I will leave it to any business man or judge in 
the country if your position is not the one that 
lays you open to the criticism I have suggested. 
As soon as mother is gone you demand that Will 
shall go, at the sacrifice of my business, or you 
will go. That paragraph sounds so like one 
Belle wrote that I know she dictated it. 

You say : "I have a different sort of principle 
from that, and had Belle been of Will's type, and 
wished or tried to make mischief, she would have 
found in me a loyalty that you have proved you 
did not possess towards me, and she would have 
been stopped at once. But she has never in any 
way influenced me or tried to. My leaving you 
was forced on me by Will's desire to be rid of us, 



THE STOLEN WIFE 101 

and you would not stop his course, then you 
joined in putting me adrift. My conscience is 
clear and I can stand my fate." 

Yes, your loyalty must be par excellence: I 
am here at home. You are five hundred miles 
away, having gone of your own volition — or 
Belle's. I have stood for you all the time. You 
gave me the pet name "Sentimental Tommy" for 
it. I am loyal yet. I have never been otherwise, 
save in your imagination. Your entire letter 
shows you have left Will, not me. Read the fol- 
lowing from your letter : 

You say : "Business interests and admiration 
of his education may blind you m/uch longer, but 
justice and right will work its way to the front in 
time, and some day you will realize the part you 
have played in this ending of an honest soul's de- 
sire; you will also find that success does not lie 
in the paths you have followed. Then you will 
see that treating the wife you have chosen, and 
still profess to love, as if she were a withered 
flower when she only asked you to put the dis- 
turbing element from our home, not from the 
school, and this only for the protection of our 
health, home and. happiness, all of which I 
thought as dear to you as to me." 

As our old friend Le Mieux used to say: 
"Wow!" I made a proposition that you try it 
with the element I called the disturber out of the 
way, pledging you that if the other proved to be 
it he should go. You refused and told Dr. Shoults 
that were you to come back it would be admitting 



102 THE STOLEN WIFE 

Belle was the disturber. If you are willing to 
give up your home and I believe your happi- 
ness, as I know it would cost me mine, rather 
than admit Belle is wrong it will have to go 
at that because I know she is not a god. 

You say: "If you will recall the treatment you 
have dealt out to another honest, trusting woman, 
whom you say you loved, and the unhappiness 
that followed for more than the two interested, 
then your course in this most unfortunate affair, 
you may be able to understand some of your 
discouragements. You have wondered why so 
great a system should progress so slowly while 
others go forward on little to recommend them/' 

Bless your heart ! You are hard up for argu- 
ments to go back thirty years to a fool blunder 
of my youth, confessed to you before marriage 
that you might know all about me to rub it in. 
It is like twitting Will for things he did ten 
years ago when under the influence of drugs. 
Why do you not rip "Brack" up the back for what 
he did when he was under the influence of liquor. 
You know he did pretty nearly as bad as Busse. 
I like "Brack" and wouldn't hold it against him. 
My system goes slowly because all great bodies 
go that way. I'll trust my future — if I am per- 
mitted to run the business. I have run it eighteen 
years and have been robbed flat once. 

You say: "There should be no great dis- 
couragements in your path ; you have such a 
splendid system, something humanity needs so 



THE STOLEN WIFE 103 

much. The one who has brought this to the 
world should find willing hands on all sides to 
help, and you would find help had you the 
proper feelings toward people. I was so glad to 
be the one to join you and wished to do all in 
my power to help you, to love you as such a 
man should deserve, and I was very slow to see 
that you did not want my help. Did not appre- 
ciate an honest, straightforward friend." 

Now, you big, sweet baby, come home to 
your "pappy". You are the mortal who can fill 
the bill you describe — and you know it. Do not 
wreck your own happiness and mine for such 
things as you have enumerated. Come and 
get your kisses and forget the bad old dream. 
I have all my work done up, except the school, 
and we will have lots of good times together. 

You say: "Had I any other choice than go? 
I still do not see that. I had. Then afterwards 
offered to take me back on your own terms, when 
my request was not unreasonable, to even your 
own friend, who faithfully tried to help you." 

You were unreasonable in asking me to 
wreck the school to gratify your spite against 
your brother. You were unreasonable when you 
refused to put the matter to the test to see 
whether I was right as to Belle being the dis- 
turber, or you as to Will. After getting this 
letter I telegraphed you to come home and we 
would do as you asked in the matter, even if it 
wrecked the school. You wired back asking me 



104 THE STOLEN WIFE 

to meet you in a department store in Kansas 
City. I can't afford to in several ways. You had 

all kinds of .choice in the matter of going. You 
didn't have to go. I begged you to stay; and 
when you came back to roast me and tell me 
the man you married is dead I begged you to 
remain then. 

You say : "I begin life over now as best I 
can, no home and assuming the disadvantage 
a woman must after such an experience. " 

No you don't. You have one of the finest 
homes in Chicago, at 2100 Prairie avenue, and 
a husband who loves you more than any other 
man in town loves his wife. Come home. 

You say: "I received the chart you sent me 
by Dr. Shoults and thank you for it. It is 
another reminder of the sad past, which I 
shall hope to forget (at least a little) by going 
into some other work. Anyway I am not quali- 
fied for it now. 

You thank me for something that reminds 
you of the sad past? Why? Because in your 
soul you know you love the boy whom you de- 
clared was neglecting you when he was hard at 
work on that chart that he might finish it and 
complete the system that is to take care of you 
and him the rest of your lives. The idea of my 
baby being jealous of my work, or of anything, 
or of anybody ! I will never offend again. I 



THE STOLEN WIFE 105 

will devote my time to you and telling what we 
have done. 

You say : "I trust this letter will reach you 
when you are in a mood to receive it as it is in- 
tended. Please read it more than once that you 
may catch my spirit — I do not intend or wish 
to hurt you in any way, but have gone over 
these things hoping that justice be established. 
I am not embittered. I am not revengeful; but 
am willing to stand the results of an honest 
effort and hope to learn by my mistakes. Yes, I 
am crushed, terribly hurt, and feel that I did not 
have your support in having a fair chance 
against this influence you chose to let continue 
in our home; did not give up, feeling I had tied 
my life with yours and there are times when I 
can understand your feeling to wish to die; but 
life is not ours from choice, arid I shall soon try 
to find some place where I can fit in and by doing 
my part as best I can, I shall hope to receive 
what is necessary for my existence. Trusting I 
shall not make another mistake in finding that 
place. One whose friendship you rejected. 
Amy." 

You big Blessing! I know a place where 
you'll just fit — in my arms. HI guarantee you 
will do your part and earn a good living. By 
the way, you haven't answered a single one of 
my twenty-one questions as to why you ceased 
to respect me, as you told me the day you came 
back to roast me. I am just your big old lover 
and after you have read your own letter over in 
combination with mine I shall look for the 



106 THE STOLEN WIFE 

sweetest message I ever got. If Will bothers 
you in the slightest he shall go. My wife is and 
always has been first with me, and everybody 
knows it. I have advertised it in my paper. 
You know it and all know it. Don't hesitate, 
for she or he who hesitates sometimes loses. I 
never hesitate and win oftener. See the Cros- 
bys. Lovingly, Charles." 

Perceiving from her letter that her mind was 
still obsessed with the notion that her brother 
had talked against her to me, in spite of all my 
denials that such was the case, I decided to con- 
cede her demand and save her; so I telegraphed 
her as follows: 

"Will has always said sacrifice him. I will 
do it if it wrecks the business. What do you 
say. Come tomorrow. Answer." 

In two hours I had her reply : 
"Meet me in Kansas City, Saturday, at 
Emery, Bird & Co. waiting room." 

To which I answered: 

"Can't possibly. Class and other reasons. 
Letter Friday morning." 

Then I took her letter and replied to it para- 
graph by paragraph as given. She sent the fol- 
lowing brief reply making no reference to my 
telegram conceding all she asked and complains 
I refused to grant: 

"Dear Charles — I have your letter of the 18th. 
You are worried, but no more than I, and I am 




MRS. N. J. CROFF. 

The Ungrateful Woman, 

with the Epileptic Son. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 107 

not well, but am hoping to go to Kansas City one 
day the early part of the week ; possibly, not till 
Wednesday or Thursday. It is rainy and warm 
here. Sincerely, Amy." 

Then I sent her the following, May 22: 

U A Simple Statement of Facts : My Dear 
Wife: The following is a succinct statement of 
the facts with reference to our relations since 
we have known each other: 

"First, I took your case on the agreement 
that I was to have no fee unless I secured the 
results I expected. This was a voluntary propo- 
sition on my part to test neurology. It was not 
intended as an act of charity, and it was clearly 
understood that I was to have a good fee if I won 
to my satisfaction as well as to yours. You were 
satisfied long before I was. Finally I was, and 
asked for yourself as my fee. You made me very 
happy by agreeing to such a settlement. You 
had never exhibited any morbid symptoms, ex- 
cept when you first came to me and said if I 
failed to gain health for you, you would end it 
all. 

"Second, when you were in Missouri, during 
our engagement, your letters were so happy 
sometimes and so 'blue' at others that I felt it 
my duty to help you decide whether you would 
keep your engagement with me or not; so I 
wrote you a long letter, setting forth my faults 
and every point that occurred to me to cut any 
figure in the matter. You had been in my 
school — so had your sister — and knew its teach- 
ings, my habits, etc. You knew my history from 
babyhood up. You read my letter and replied 
that you were sorry you had exhibited any doubts 
about the matter and would certainly marry me. 



108 THE STOLEN WIFE 

I certainly did not deceive you then or at any 
time since. 

"Third, because I loved you and your mother 
and knew it would give you pleasure to have her 
and your sister with you, I invited them to ljve 
with us. They accepted and you thanked me for 
my 'goodness'. Mother never violated my hospi- 
tality in the slightest; your sister did from the 
moment she came into the house, almost. She 
first got into trouble with the cook; next she 
kept harping on the sex teachings of my school 
until she worried you with fear that she would 
go and take mother. Mother testified to the 
correctness and purity of our teachings. Belle 
had no business to come into the house if she was 
afraid her Virtue' would be smirched. No one 
but a very lewd-minded person could find any- 
thing wrong with our sex disease teachings and 
you know it. Your own remarks with reference 
to Belle prove that. 

"Fourth, you knew my habit, as to swearing 
when provoked, before you married me, and, by 
accepting my written proposition you agreed to 
be patient with me and not find fault. You did 
not keep that promise. You criticized me and 
my methods of conducting my school until you 
often tried my patience, but I kept still and found 
no fault with you. Instead of discovering your- 
self, you grew so selfish that if I actually hurt 
myself badly by striking my foot against a chair 
in the dark and swore about it, you would rise up 
in bed and exclaim: 'Have you no respect for 
my feelings? You are a coarse man!' Finally 
that exasperated me and I retorted, at which you 
took mortal ofifense. You said you would leave 
and never return ; would not even leave your ad- 



THE STOLEN WIFE 109 

dress. Then was when I said : 'Oh ! you can go 
plumb to hell if you want to', which you have 
been harping on ever since in your letters with- 
out mentioning the provocation. You have also 
said I have told you you reminded me of 'X', 
Well it was you who did the reminding. If you 
exhibited her tactics is it a matter of wonder I 
should be reminded of her? Which is the worst, 
to do the acts or to be told of them? 

"Fifth, I took Will into the house at your re- 
quest, made something of him and gave mother 
as much happiness by it as anything you ever did 
for her gave her. I get him where I can use him 
and adapt my business to such an arrangement, 
which is advantageous to the school, in spite of 
the irritation he is to me sometimes, when, your 
mother being deceased, and your sister deter- 
mined to rule or ruin the school if she could, 
prejudiced you against him by saying that he 
talked about you to me — a damned lie, whoever 
says it — convinced you that I was neglecting you 
for business, and finally worked you up to the 
point where you deliberately left your home and 
the lovingest husband any woman ever had ; who 
spoiled you and gained your contempt by not 
resenting your criticisms at the beginning. You 
declared you never wanted to see Will again 
and predicted the school would go to pieces ; you 
said you did not even respect me; abused me as 
'dishonorable' when you knew and know that I 
never did anything dishonorable in all the time 
you have known me. 

"Sixth, Within two weeks you sent for me to 
meet you at the Palmer house parlor and I re- 
sponded in fifteen minutes. You had left home 
angry because I had refused to turn your brother 



110 THE STOLEN WIFE 

out of the house and hamper the school work, be- 
side making it impossible for me to give any 
time at all to you if I did it. At the Palmer 
house meeting I was in a nervous state almost to 
the point of collapse ; a detective was in the room 
with us, having been called there by the house- 
maid — I saw her do it — and when I made you 
the proposition that if you would come to your 
home with Belle — whom I call the disturbing ele- 
ment — away I would guarantee the other would 
go instantly if it was found he had anything to do 
with it. You refused point blank. I could do 
nothing more and as I had a class which required 
my attention I left after spending a fruitless 
hour. That made you angry and you have said 
I didn't care for you and wanted to get away. I 
was distressed to have to meet my wife at a 
place where giddy women, and unsophisticated 
ones go to meet gentlemen friends. I came 
home and sent you my proposition in writing, 
and added an invitation to go with me 
to Milwaukee and talk it over. Receiv- 
ing no reply I became indignant and 
wrote you that I would see you 'at home and 
nowhere else'. Later I found you were out of 
the city, hence was not responsible for the neg- 
lect to reply and I sent another invitation which 
has as yet elicited no reply, save to say the letter 
was received 'too late' and to twit me for saying 
I would see you 'at home and nowhere else'. 

"Seventh, You have never been well and I 
have made all sorts of allowances for your con- 
duct in this matter, because I believe you are 
under the vilest influence — Belle's — I ever heard 
of ; one that while pretending to love you and to 
have your interests at heart, would sacrifice you 



THE STOLEN WIFE 111 

or anyone else, and has sacrificed you in this 
matter, to gratify her own spiteful, 'reformer' 
nature. I propose to publish the whole story, 
printing her picture and yours, so that the world 
may know her as a devil and you as her victim, 
unless this brings you to a realization of the situa- 
tion and places your love for me in the ascend- 
ancy over her influence. 

"Eighth, When you wrote me from Sedalia 
and I had seen Mrs. Wood, who told me she is 
sure you love me, I telegraphed you I would 
yield to your demands (unreasonable as they are) 
and let Will go if it wrecks the school if you 
would come home. The only reply I received was 
to meet you in a Kansas City department store 
the following Saturday. I declined. I have some 
self respect if you have none for me. My propo- 
sition now is that when you shall have seen that 
you gave up a good home and a loving husband 
wilfully and without any reasonable justification 
for your act, as your own letters (telling me first 
you hate Will and never want to see him again, 
then writing complaining because he has not been 
to see you to try to persuade you to return) 
prove; you will find me the same loyal husband 
and lover I have always been ; although you can- 
not expect me to have the same absolute confi- 
dence in your loyalty to me — that might come 
again, however, as there is not a jealous streak 
in me. I still believe you would never have done 
the things you have nor said the things you have 
if you had not been under the vile influence. You 
told Mrs. Wood you were sorry you told me you 
did not respect me and that the man you married 
was dead, etc., but, dear, you have not yet told 
me you are sorry. When you do Til forgive 



112 THE STOLEN WIFE 

you and well forget. My proposition is now that 
whenever you are ready to come home and take 
your place as before under the conditions you find 
here, which I will guarantee will not be embar- 
rassing to you or hurtful to you, I am ready to 
go more than half way to meet you. But it is to 
be understood distinctly that I am not to be picked 
on without provocation and that I am to run the 
school as I deem best. On these terms you have 
a loving welcome. Charles/' 

Knowing she would go to Kansas City to the 
home of our good friends the Crosbys, I wrote 
them telling them of the catastrophe which had 
befallen us and asking their good offices. They 
replied : 

"Dear Doctor — Yours received and I assure 
you Mrs. Crosby and I will do anything in our 
power to present the case to Mrs. McCormick in 
the strongest way we know how, and that we also, 
both of us, feel the deepest interest. We both 
know your strong mental make-up and are dum- 
founded at the attitude Mrs. McCormick has 
taken. After having known you and her and her 
family we are so glad you have made confidents 
of us and that we know, before she comes, your 
side of the case, or have heard from you, so we 
can do all possible to bring you two together 
again for your happiness and I know hers as well. 
If I had heard the news from any other source 
than yourself I would not have believed she had 
gone, for I fully believed you two inseparable and 
ideally mated, and I still believe so. Yours most 
sympathetically, C. W. Crosby/' 

In the meantime it had been arranged that I 



THE STOLEN WIFE 113 

was to meet her at the Crosbys, and, as I 
understood it, she was to come home with me ; 
but when I received the following letter it put 
a damper on my hopes : 

"Kansas City, May 24; Dear Doctor: Mrs. 
McCormick came, alone, last evening. We are 
doing all we can and think, if you can get here 
Thursday, your influence will climax our efforts. 
So far I don't know where she stands to be sure 
of it. She is very much depressed. Crosby." 

I arrived on time and spent several days dis- 
cussing the matter. My discovery on my arrival, 
that she had not her trunk with her told me she 
was still controlled by Belle, and it was with much 
misgiving that I argued. It was not until Sun- 
day afternoon that she agreed to come home at 
all; the more I yielded the more she demanded. 
Finally she looked me squarely in the face and 
said : "If I return home and you fail to make me 
happy, and I leave again, will you agree not to 
publish the story about Belle ?" I replied: "Yes ? 
provided, of course, that this is not a trick." That 
stopped negotiations for an hour. Finally I said 
"Does it not seem to you a remarkable thing that 
a quarrel between Belle and her brother should 
separate us two?" She thought a little and then 
said, with a happy smile : "I'll go home and we'll 
try it all over again." From that minute until I 
left for Chicago in the evening she appeared a 
changed woman. She had refused to set a time 



114 THE STOLEN WIFE 

when she would come home, saying she had to 
help her sister make over some of mother's cloth- 
ing, and expressed her pleasure that the sister 
would enjoy having mother's belongings — at the 
same time she declined to allow me to arrange for 
her own occupancy of the suite of rooms in our 
home which mother had occupied, although they 
are the best in the house. 

After I came home I wrote her letters daily, 
making no mention of the trouble, but expressing 
my happiness at the thought of having her with 
me soon. She wrote me as follows : 

"Sedalia, June 10. Dear Charles: I arrived 
safely after my trip to Kansas City and am not 
quite back to my former good feelings. I spent 
Monday down town, expecting to leave at 4:30 
and reach here at 7 :00, but that train only arrives 
15 minutes earlier than the 5 :40, so I waited for 
the later one. Found Will and John Croff to 
meet me. Was very glad to see them because it 
was 9 o'clock when the train arrived. It is warm 
and fine now ; clear and nice for riding, which we 
are doing every day. Nannie isn't feeling very 
well so I am helping her a little. Everything 
seems like a play house. Received your letters 
and hope your prospects will meet your fondest 
dreams. Suppose the students are all in by this 
time and they are promising people to work 
with. I will make my trip to Saline next week, 
but letters sent here will be forwarded to me 
there. I will drop you a line as I can. It is 
hard to catch a little writing time with so many 
to visit with. Hope you are well and enjoying 



THE STOLEN WIFE 115 

the fine weather and a good class. Ever, Amy." 
A day later the next one came, showing that 
she was again under the influence of the she- 
devil : 

"Dear Charles : It is raining and my trip to 
Saline has been postponed for a while. Will go 
as soon as possible. I am sorry you are lonely 
and anticipate pleasure from my return, for, 
frankly, I see little prospect for happiness for 
anyone after our trip to K. C. Your outburst 
there and treatment of my rights does not look 
as if you realized my feelings or comfort and 
I see little to hope for in a trial. At first I thot 
maybe another effort would be best, but from 
your actions the night before you left I could not 
but feel otherwise. You do not view things as 
I do, and at your time of life and all I do not 
believe you can be different. My happiness is 
what you have always said came first and you 
wished no sacrifice on your account. I have 
tried and hoped, but even after it all you dis- 
regard my feelings when you feel you know 
what is for my good, regardless of my feelings 
or word in the matter. You will, I think, re- 
call Saturday night and the trouble we had. I 
will not go to Saline before the last of the week 
as it is raining too much. Ever, Amy." 

Shocked again at the audacity of the letter, 
I replied: 

"Chicago, June 7. Amy, Darling: That evil 
influence has taken possession of you again ! You 
refer to my 'outburst' in Kansas City ! Do you 
remember that you positively refused to return 
home and I then threatened to publish that vil- 



116 THE STOLEN WIFE 

lain Belle (this was my outburst), when you 
threatened to end your life? Do you remember 
bouncing in your bed and raving while I held 
you and begged you to be a woman? I have 
your happiness so much at heart that I would do 
anything reasonable to make it complete. Un- 
less you are the rankest hypocrite the world ever 
produced you would be willing to concede that 
if you should come home with a determination 
to not be happy you would, very likely, not be. 
You write so differently from what I have al- 
ways found you to be that I cannot believe it 
is you. You demand everything from me with- 
out specifying what it is, assuming that every- 
thing is due from me to make you happy and 
that you owe nothing to yourself or to me, your 
husband. From an absolutely unselfish, lovable 
woman, you picture yourself turned to a selfish 
unscrupulous one. Of course, if that is the case, 
you are at liberty to remain away, if that is your 
choice. I cannot make you happy if you refuse 
to do your part. If you are not of a different 
mind and decide to come home and try to let 
me make you happy by the 15th I shall open my 
batteries on the destroyer of our happiness 
and will make her wish she had never been born. 
Loving, hoping, and pitying you for the awful 
influence you are under, I am, always, your 
worshiping husband, Charles." 

She replied immediately, and this letter shows 
she was under the damnable influence when she 
wrote the other, else why did she write it? Her 
entire conduct has been such as to convince the 
most skeptical that she has been either under the 
control of that she-devil, or she is a she-devil 



THE STOLEN WIFE 117 

herself, who would keep leading me on for the 
purpose of torture: 

"Dear Charles : There seems to be some mis- 
understanding. I said I was sorry you were an- 
ticipating so much pleasure, etc., or words to 
that effect. I only meant that I hoped you would 
not be too buoyant, for it takes time to get over 
such differences as we had in Kansas City, and 
I hope we can in time, and I certainly trust we 
may avoid them, for they are most unhappy af- 
fairs. Hastily, ever, Amy." 

A day or two later I received a call to go to 
Kansas City to see Mrs. Crosby, who was ill, and 
as I left Chicago, brother Will, the despised of 
his sisters, wired my wife that I had gone. The 
next day I received a letter from her tendering 
her services to Mrs. Crosby. I was glad of an- 
other opportunity to see her, after the outcome 
of our other meeting, so I wrote her to join me, 
which she did. She was very formal, however, 
as if she had been coached for the occasion. She 
was not permitted to have her trunk with her 
this time either. However I succeeded, with the 
assistance of Mrs. Crosby, in persuading her to 
agree to return home as soon as she could at- 
tend to putting some flowers on her mother's 
grave at Marshall ; and after Mrs. Crosby showed 
decided improvement we left together, she rid- 
ing on the Chicago train as far as Marshall, about 
three hours. On the way we discussed several 
matters which will appear in the next letter 



118 THE STOLEN WIFE 

quoted. As she left the train at Marshall I said : 
"Now, come home soon, dear." She had not 
yet set a date for her return at any of our con- 
ferences. She replied, with a laugh and toss of 
her head which I had never seen before, "No, 
not soon." This was too palpable a shot for me 
to let go by without showing resentment, so on 
my arrival home I sent the following: 

"Chicago, June 12, 1910. 

"To my Wife, Amy N. (Black) McCormick: 
Dear Amy : Your 'No, not soon,' in reply to my 
request that you come home soon, as you left 
the train at Marshall last night, was a shot that 
hit the center of your target and set his thinker 
and analyzer going, with the result that this let- 
ter is going to be very plain and very final. 

"A few minutes before the train reached 
Marshall, as we sat in the smoking compartment 
of the car, waiting for it to reach the station, 
you said: T am coming back home and make a 
faithful effort to be happy. We will start all 
over again/ A few moments before that you 
told me as we sat in the observation car, that 
you had married too late in life to ever adjust 
yourself to the conditions and that you would 
not expect to be tied here if you came back ; that 
you would spend next winter in California; that 
you had become so accustomed to traveling 
about that you could not stand the limitations. 
A few moments before that, in the diner, you 
told me that we had taken trips to Buffalo, to 
Cleveland, to Michigan, to Milwaukee, to Du- 
buque, to the South, besides little trips. Thus 
you proved by your own utterance you have not 



THE STOLEN WIFE 119 

been tied very badly. Then you and mother and 
you and Belle had several trips besides those we 
took. Yesterday morning, in our room at the 
Crosbys', you told me you did not believe I 
loved you and when I asked if you loved me 
you gave a little laugh and replied, 'Not much/ 
Then you added that I have treated you worse 
than anyone ever did before. When I asked for 
specifications you repeated the story of my hav- 
ing called you a liar and told you to go to hell. 
I reminded you that the occasion when I told 
you what you said was a lie, was when you in- 
sisted on declaring that your brother Will had 
said evil things about you to me. I had told 
you so often that not only he but no one else had 
ever said anything but good about you that I 
thought it time to stop that story, so I said : 'That 
is a lie.' It was a lie and is a lie; no matter 
where it originated. Then you threatened that 
you would leave me one of these days and would 
never come back and you wouldn't leave any 
address. I was pretty well out of patience by 
that time and I said: 'Oh, you can go plumb to 
hell if you want to.' Not elegant language, I 
confess. But what about the provocation? When 
you brought the subject up yesterday and at oth- 
er times I asked you which is the worst, to tell 
a lie, or to be told of it? 

"Now I propose to go into some details about 
the lie business: You were a graduate from 
my college when you agreed to marry me. You 
knew my views on the sex question and endorsed 
them. You have told many others the same thing 
since. You told me the other day, at Kansas 
City, that you never believed in them but had 
accepted them in an effort to be a good wife; 



120 THE STOLEN WIFE 

again you told me, the same hour, that you had 
believed in them once but now you have changed 
your mind. Pray which one of these stories 
is a lie? You told me last summer, just after 
my sister, Mrs. Rowe, of Buffalo, N. Y., went 
home from her visit to us, that she had told you 
of her fifteen year amour with a friend of her- 
self and her husband, a wealthy man of family, 
whom she loves, who helps clothe her and she 
would have to leave town and have her grief out 
alone if her lover should die. You told me that 
she told you to tell me as she believed I would 
think it was all right, as her husband was not and 
never had been a husband to her, from some 
cause which she did not explain. Two weeks 
ago, at Kansas City, you looked me squarely in 
the eyes and said: 'You remember that story I 
told you last summer about your sister Carrie 
and her friend'? I replied: 'Yes/ Then you 
said: 'Well, I never told you that story.' Which 
one of these two tales is a lie? You told me 
when you left here that you were 'ordered out 
of the house.' You told me yesterday that you 
never claimed such a thing. Which of those 
stories is a lie? You told me after mother died 
how much you all appreciated what I had done 
for her in her last years and how much she re- 
spected and loved me, saying that I stood equal 
to if not higher than her own sons. You told 
me two weeks ago that mother had said she was 
afraid I wouldn't make you happy. Which one 
of those two stories is a lie? You told me re- 
cently that you haven't been happy with me for 
over two years. You have written to your 
friends about your 'good' husband within a year, 
to my certain knowledge, and within two weeks 



THE STOLEN WIFE 121 

you have written me that you were happy with 
me up to our first and last trouble, all of which 
occurred in April. Which of those tales is a 
lie, my dear ? You have reminded me repeatedly 
of our agreement that if either became dissatis- 
fied with the other we would be perfectly honest 
and say so. Yet you tell me now that you have 
been dissatisfied a long time; unhappy and did 
not tell me. What brand of truth do you call 
that? I have asked you repeatedly in the last 
two months why you have lost respect for me 
as you have said, even enumerating things which 
I thought may have caused it, such as restoring 
your health, curing your mother, helping Will 
out of the drug habit and making a man of him, 
so that with his education he will yet lead all his 
brothers in making his mark in the world; en- 
tertaining your relatives that you might have 
everything to make you happy; etc. You have 
never mentioned a single thing save the same 
old story that I* called you a liar and told you 
to go to hell, which is false. But if I had is 
that enough to warrant you in leaving such a 
home and such a faithful love as I have for 
you? If it was, why did you offer to remain if 
I would dismiss Will and either overwork my- 
self or kill and cripple my school? I had to re- 
fuse because I would not have been able to sup- 
port you if I did as you demanded. Then, when 
you left, if you were so mortally offended, why 
did you send for me — you had declared you 
would not do so nor leave your address? Why 
did you send for me to come to the Palmer house 
to talk with you, and why did you write to me 
that you thought we had 'so many things in com- 
mon to bind us together' if you believed you were 



122 THE STOLEN WIFE 

in the wrong place and were not happy and could 
never be made happy? When I offered to send 
Will away if he interfered with your happiness 
why did* you not accept ? I have never lied to 
you in the slightest I have always been so 
proud that it was never necessary. Finally I 
wired you to come home and I would send Will 
away if it killed the school. Why did you not 
come home? I had conceded everything you 
asked. You telegraphed me to meet you in a 
Kansas City department store when you had 
friends in that city who are your Good Friends. 
Why did you do that? When we finally met in 
the home of the Crosbys and came to an agree- 
ment that if you would come back and help me 
try to make you happy it was on the basis that I 
would let Belle go scott free after her scandalous 
conduct in my house while the recipient of my 
hospitality. Then you try to put off the home- 
coming as long as possible to tease and worry 
me, evidently. 

"Now you have gone the limit. Did I not love 
you so much that I utterly refuse to believe you 
could be guilty of such treason to your husband 
as your conduct of the past fifty days, taken on 
its face would indicate, and choose to place the 
vile responsibility where I am sure it really be- 
longs, I would have never written you or made 
any efforts at reconciliation. 

"Here is my ultimatum : You must be at home 
on the morning of Thursday, June 16th, tender- 
ing your presence as sufficient apology for your 
conduct, if you are guilty, or letting that pres- 
ence be an admission that you have acted under 
a strange and irresistible influence which caused 
you to do things a child would have been soundly 




"G. ALLAN" ROWE, THE MAN GOSSIP 

Who Claims the Right to Slander and Blackguard 

and Denies His Victims the Right 

to Retaliate. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 12b 

spanked for ; instead of conducting yourself with 
the dignity due from a forty-year-old woman. 
My love for my wife is so unbounded I can for- 
give her for almost anything now; but not after 
Thursday. If you do not come I shall accept it 
as the final evidence that the influence is in su- 
preme control, or that you realize your deliber- 
ate deceit has run its race and I will proceed to 
act in a manner that will dispense as nearly ade- 
quate punishment as I can supply. This is the 
last communication you will receive from me, un- 
less your reply seems to merit an answer. A 
plea for time will not go. In anguish, your 
husband, Charles McCormick." 

She replied in the following indifferent man- 
ner, showing that she was either under the 
damned influence or had determined to ignore 
my specifications and play with me as long as 
she could. Had I not known her so well and 
so positively opposite to the character she has 
been playing, I should have regarded her as un- 
worthy to lace my shoes long ago; but I still be- 
lieve it is impossible for the girl I married and 
lived with four years to do these things. Here 
is her letter: 

"Dear Charles : You have misunderstood me 
in reply to your question. Possibly you did not 
hear my reply. These were the words you used 
as I was leaving the train: 'Will you be home 
next week?' I had just been telling you the nature 
of my visit here, to have some planting done 
in the cemetery, a trip to the farm, both of which 
may be determined by the weather. In view of 



124 THE STOLEN WIFE 

such uncertainty I had told you I could not set 
the exact time. This was discussed before we 
reached Marshall. As I got off the train you 
asked me the above question. I replied: 'Not 
so soon/ You seem to have it I said: 'No, not 
soon/ I had tried to be careful not to set the 
date earlier than I could meet, for I was anxious 
to avoid further misunderstandings, but suppose 
you did not hear. Do you remember when I 
said I felt like a trip to California now would 
do me good you said I could go if I wished, but 
you thot better to wait until this winter because 
of the summer heat? You did not tell me I must 
be home this week, and from our talk I sup- 
posed you would give me time to finish my visit 
and business here when I had given up the 
Western trip. It is clear this morning and I 
will go to the country for a day or two. The 
ground is so wet I fear it is not a good time for 
planting, but will see the gardener about it. 
Hastily, Amy." 

I had been long-suffering in this controversy 
and this letter, totally ignoring the main features 
of mine to her, made me so indignant I sent the 
following : 

"Chicago, June 14, My Dear Amy: I have 
a right to the same fealty from my wife that I 
give to her. If I can't have it I'll have to go 
without it. Your letter, just received ignores 
the main part of mine to you and you have said 
repeatedly that to ignore anyone is a settler. Now, 
I will not be ignored. I will have answers to 
my propositions or know the reason why. The 
outrageous treatment which has been accorded 



THE STOLEN WIFE 125 

me must stop. Either you love me or you don't. 
You know where I stand. You told me in Kansas 
City you did not love me much. Beware that 
you do not carry this matter too far. If you 
come home it must be at once and for good. If 
you do not intend to come say so. I refuse to 
be held in suspense any longer. Charles." 

I loved her so for all that she had been to me 
that I could do nothing but think of the great 
trouble. I was almost wild to find the she-devil 
had my sweet wife so under her control. Within 
twenty-four hours I wrote the three letters fol- 
lowing : 

"Chicago, June 14, 1910. 
"My Dear Amy: You have given up a better 
home than 99 out of every 100 women ever had. 
Your only excuse given has been that I treated 
you worse than any one ever did in your life. 
You specify that I called you a liar and told you 
to go to hell. You fail to recognize the cause for 
my remarks and make a false statement regard- 
ing the mjatter. First you had been reiterating 
the claim that Will had talked to me against you. 
I grew tired of hearing it and simply said : 'That 
is a lie.' It was a lie; you may have originated 
the story — if so it is none the less a lie; and 
the fact that you told it does not change the 
truth in the matter ; hence it is a false statement 
that I called you a liar. By reiterating it after I 
had declared it false repeatedly you were prac- 
tically calling me a liar. Then you threatened 
to leave me and added that you would never let 
me hear from you again — that you would not 
even leave your address ; then it was that I said : 



126 THE STOLEN WIFE 

'You can go to hell if you want to;' but that is 
not telling you to go to hell, as you have chosen 
to interpret it. Now you must admit that your 
conduct provoked both remarks to which you 
cling like a drowning person to a straw as an ex- 
cuse for deserting a good home and a loving hus- 
band. Do you think anyone will ever believe 
you, as a sensible woman, would leave your hus- 
band for such a trivial matter — provoked by 
yourself? The only reasonable conclusion peo- 
ple will reach after knowing the particulars about 
Belle and her methods in my home and else- 
where must be that she has influenced you by her 
indomitable and devilish w r ill. 

"On mature reflection you must, in all honesty, 
admit that I have also treated you better than 
anyone ever did : First, I gave you all the good 
health you ever had in your whole life; Second, 
I gave you and still give you all the love I ever 
had — a combination of admiration, respect and 
all that goes to make the ideal. I have always 
given you my fullest confidence and w T as proud 
that I need not have the slightest secret from you. 
Have you done the same with me? We have 
often had our playful disputes as to which of 
us loved the other the most. You must now 
admit I am the winner. You have written me 
letter after letter arguing that I have always said 
I would do anything for your happiness but you 
have never intimated you have considered my 
happiness in the least in this matter. Do you 
think that is fair? You have declared that you 
wanted to put in most of your time away from 
home even if you decide to come back now. Is 
that doing the part of a loving wife who has her 
husband's interests at heart? Analyze yourself 



THE STOLEN WIFE 127 

and see if you can justify your conduct toward 
me during the past fifty days. 

"I think I know the reason you do not want 
to come home now, even if you have intended to 
come at all : It is that you do not want to come 
while there is a soul in the house who knows that 
you left with the expressed purpose of remain- 
ing away. Why did you not say so instead of 
calling back flippantly, as you left the train at 
Marshall, 'No, not soon/ in response to my re- 
quest that you come home soon? You will find 
none here who will mention the matter or give 
it the slightest reference by word or act. All 
know that we were in Kansas City together, that 
you are out there on business and will be home 
soon; and they all know I am very anxious to 
have my chum at home again. The servants will 
be so glad to see you that you will feel very much 
at home. When I was sick both Herman and 
Arthur said to me : 'Don't worry, Doctor, Mrs. 
McCormjick will soon be home to you.' 

"Now, darling, remember this suspense has 
been hard on you and it has almost knocked me 
out. I cannot stand it any longer and I must 
have it settled absolutely and at once, for all time. 
Very lovingly and hopefully, your husband, 
Charles." 

"Chicago, June 15, 1910. 

"Amy: Leaving Belle out of the proposition 
as you suggest when you say you have been 
wholly responsible for your conduct in the last 
sixty days, you stand convicted on the follow- 
ing counts : 

"1. I married you in good faith and have kept 
it while you have not. 



128 THE STOLEN WIFE 

"2. I was well and you were sick; I cared 
for you with all love and patience; you often de- 
clared you did not see what I wanted to marry 
such a charge as you for; showing you were not 
as patient as a wife as you had been as a patient. 

"3. I idealized you and instead of looking for 
your faults, pointed out your virtues ; you looked 
for faults and magnified them, constantly tell- 
ing me of them until you did me the final 
wrong to charge me with causing you to 
leave home when it was you who finally provoked 
me to reply to your insults — then your ego was 
so large that you could not see that you were 
wholly at fault. 

"4. I plead guilty to my part in this, that I 
overestimated your mental balance and thought 
to make you all the sweeter by being sweet to 
you and petting you. . It spoiled you, but I hope 
not beyond restoration. 

"5. You knew all about me and my work be- 
fore you came to me as my wife, endorsed it 
theoretically and practically, yet permitted your 
prudish sister to criticize me in my own house, 
and within the last two weeks have told me your- 
self that you never believed in my teachings but 
professed to in order to be a good wife; you 
also said you did believe once but have changed 
your mind ; you place yourself in a very peculiar 
position, you must confess. 

"6. I gave you and your mother and sister a 
good home; I did for other members of your 
family many things, cheerfully, because I wanted 
to make my wife happy. You have said many 
times yourself that I was the most unselfish man 
you ever met. As you leave you try to pick a 
fuss with me and tell me I have treated you 



THE STOLEN WIFE 129 

worse than you were ever treated in your life. 
You have deliberately lied to me about so many 
other things that it makes me wonder if you al- 
ways lied to me just to see how much I would 
stand for. 

"7. You have told me you have lost respect 
for me and do not love me, yet you kept on writ- 
ing me after you left and even complained be- 
cause Will did not come after you when you had 
said you never wanted to see him again. When 
we talked of coming home you said you could 
never be happy here again and when I spoke of 
using mother's rooms you shed tears and said 
you wanted nothing to do with them; yet the 
next few minutes you expressed approval of 
Nannie's wearing mother's clothes. If you are 
the altogether hypocrite your own words and acts 
indicate on their face I do not want you here; 
but I cannot believe that my 'Baby Girl' could 
be so low and contemptible. I will always be- 
lieve, from other evidence, that she has been hyp- 
notized and will treat the case accordingly when 
I give the details to the world. In order to make 
your peace with me, however, on the strength 
of your claims you must enter a plea of guilty 
and admit you persisted in charging me with re- 
sponsibility for your last act — leaving homje — 
and you must explain your assertions with ref- 
erence to the sex question and to Carrie and sev- 
eral other things. This must all be done before 
next Monday morning, in Chicago, or the doors 
of my house will be closed to you forever. You 
have kept me in hell for sixty days and I propose 
to break out. Here I am obligated to teach my 
classes and am unfit for it, all on your account. 
I will forgive if you ask it within the time men- 



130 THE STOLEN WIFE 

tioned, but positively not after; nor will I listen 
to any further accusations from you forever. I 
love my ideal; if you can be that, come home; 
if not, don't. The only revenge I can have for 
all I have stood for is to clear my skirts before 
the public and our friends by fullest publicity, 
which I shall do if it is ended. Charles." 

"Chicago, June 15, 1910. 

"Amy: As I sit and meditate on the past 
fifty-eight days and the manner in which I 
have been treated by those who owe me more 
than anyone else on earth — even to charging 
me with being responsible for their conduct — 
my indignation grows until I feel 'tempery.' 

"After what you have told me of what you 
mean when you ignore people, your ignor- 
ing of my questions in my letter of Sunday 
means to me that you must have lost respect 
for me and yourself too. The crux of the 
matter is upon your replies to those ques- 
tions. You have said to me that you could not 
soon forget my 'treatment' of you even if you 
came back. I want to say that you ought to 
thank your lucky star that I have a good 
forgetter. I sent you this morning a copy of 
a letter I wrote you at Sedalia in which I 
place the responsibility for all this trouble 
on you or the one who has you influenced. 
Don't think for a minute I will permit you 
to hold me for something I never did. Don't 
think for a minute I can be trifled with any 
longer. You owe me an apology for what 
you have caused me to suffer in the past fifty- 
eight days. If you respect yourself and me 
you will confess your fault, come home and 
be natural ; drop those prudish notions you 



THE STOLEN WIFE 131 

exhibited in Kansas City; admit you deliber- 
erately imposed on my good nature by tell- 
ing me what you knew to be false and pledg- 
ing me you will be as faithful to me as I have 
always been to you. I will stand for no more 
of this nonsense. If you come home this 
week, well and good ; but remember I have no 
promises to make as to what I will or will 
not do. I gave you my word not to publish 
Belle, if you come, and of course I wall not, 
provided we outgrow the evil effects she has 
had. Otherwise I most certainly will give her 
a dose. I have written Nannie that inasmuch 
as she denied me a reply to my request that 
she help me get you away from the influence 
of Belle I have the right to presume she is in 
league with that devil to keep you away from 
me. I told her that her conduct is as con- 
temptible as is that of the Missouri Pacific 
railroad company in employing her epileptic 
son in the train dispatcher's office, thus en- 
dangering lives of passengers and others, and 
I told her the wmole story will go into print. 
When I think of the humiliation it must be 
to you to have to confess to your husband 
that you have wronged him grievously, or 
have been under a strange, vile influence, I 
pity you and love you and will help you. 
They have made you feel that you are the 
outraged one, when it is not so. If I can for- 
give and forget how you have exhibited no 
thought of my happiness but have constantly 
demanded your own at whatever cost to me, 
you should show your appreciation of it be- 
fore it is everlastingly too late. I will open 
fire Monday morning if you are not at home 
with a pledge to remain — and you shall give 



133 THE STOLEN WIFE 

me replies to the questions I asked in my 
Sunday letter. I positively will not be ig- 
nored. This is absolutely the last word from 
me. Charles." 

It was not quite the last word from me, 
however, for on July 4th I wrote : 

"Amy Dear: As I am about to begin a 
bombardment of my enemies, in which no 
mercy will be shown or asked, I want to say 
to you that you are the only woman in the 
world for me. I gave you my love — my life — 
they took you away. I will never believe your 
conduct has been your own during the past 
three months. I will always love the sweet 
woman who was my pet, and when she wants 
me she knows where I am waiting." 

I have been completely ignored by her since 
June 13th. On August 18th, while in Chicago, 
Dr. Crosby, our mutual friend, sent her a tele- 
gram begging her to not let prejudice or pride 
wreck two lives, referring to hers and mine. 
He received the following reply: 

"Sacramento, California, Aug. 18th. 
"Doctor upset my agreement to return 
when I came away, and twice since. I am 
done. Amy McCormick." 



FRIENDS AND ENEMIES. 

On June 7th I sent the following letter to 
her sister Mrs. N. J. Croff, 1014 South Osage 
street, Sedalia, Missouri, the mother of the 
epileptic boy I have referred to, believing she 
would not only be glad to show her gratitude 
to me but would have her sister's interests at 
heart enough to advise her fairly: 

"Mrs. N. J. Croff: I am addressing you 
this letter to ask you to* help me save your 
sister, my wife, from the influence of one who 
has most shamefully abused by hospitality. 
I refer to Belle. You know some of the par- 
ticulars, but from some remarks dropped by 
Amy when I met her in Kansas City, I fear 
you have been deceived or not taken into full 
confidence. Amy has admitted repeatedly 
that I have always been good to her. She 
disappointed me on the K. C. trip by not hav- 
ing her trunk with her so that she could come 
home with me; and I believe it was Belle's 
influence that fixed the matter so. Now I 
propose to give the world a complete history 
of what I have done for my wife and her 
family, going into such details that there will 
be no misconception of what Belle has done 
and why. Nothing on earth can prevent what 
is coming unless I have my wife home by 
the 16th. You have seen enough of the world 
to know that Belle cannot afford the exposure 
she will get at my hands. I will make her 



134 THE STOLEN WIFE 

an example that will bring shame upon all 
who know her or who ever will know her. I 
will produce the most positive proofs. I will 
protect my wife in it all but I will show how 
she has been dominated through pity for the 
hopeless condition of her sister who is abso- 
lutely without scruples. This is the last let- 
ter I shall write in the matter. Amy's letter, 
just received, makes it useless for me to argue 
any more. I shall proceed to act in such a 
manner as I think best to save her from mak- 
ing herself and many others unhappy for life. 
I hope you have it in your power to show 
her that she has some duties as a wife which 
she is bound to respect if she wants the res- 
pect of the world and of herself. I leave it 
to you to use your judgment in the matter. 
You know what sort of a home I have given 
her. You know that I love her and always 
have. After the 16th let Belle have a care 
for herself. I shall have none for her. I will 
have lost my sweet wife through her and I will 
make her repent her acts no matter what hap- 
pens to me, Respectfully your brother 
Charles." 

Immediately after sending the above I was 
called to Kansas City and had the interview 
with my wife, during which she told me that 
Belle had sent me word that if she were a man 
she would do lots of things to me. So, on my 
return to Chicago I wrote the she-devil as 
follows. 

"Chicago, June 12, Belle Black, Sedalia, 
Mo. : I have received your threat sent by 



THE STOLEN WIFE 135 

Amy. I have given her until Thursday to be 
at home as a wife should be and as she would 
be if it were not for you. If she does not 
come it is your fault and you may as well 
know that I have no fears of you or of any- 
one you know. I shall give truths to the pub- 
lic and I will be only too glad to prove them 
in court. You are the most heartless, con- 
scienceless beast I ever saw, male or female, 
and the world shall know you as you are. 
Remember there is no delay for you. You 
will have destroyed my home and your sis- 
ter's happiness. I will punish you as the sit- 
uation merits. You say if you were a man 
you would do so and so. If you had been a 
man you would have had to settle with me 
fifty days ago. You talk conscience ! and 
purity! You have neither. The truth will be 
sufficient to finish you. It shall go wherever 
you have ever had an acquaintance and you 
shall be shunned as the leper you are. Vile 
monster ! Female Svengali ! You shall find 
out whom you tackled this time. Charles Mc- 
Q>rmick." 

"A few days before the above was written 
I had sent the same individual this one. 

"Belle Black: I have just received a letter 
from Amy which shows your devilish influ- 
ence is at work again. She talks about my 
'outbreak' in Kansas City when it was she 
who had the 'outbreak' and threatened to kill 
herself if I expose you. She writes as if her 
happiness could only be secured by some sac- 
rifice from me which she has not designated. 
She evidently does not desire to return here, 



136 THE STOLEN WIFE 

although she appeared happy after we had 
settled the matter last Sunday week. Now I 
have this, to say to you : If she is not at home 
by the 16th of June I will cut loose on you 
and the world shall know what you are. You 
have worked on her sympathies until she is 
liable to destroy herself — or else she was 
bluffing when she talked to me. If she does 
anything her blood will be on your head. 
Damn you ! Curse you ! Your people will 
know you when I have done with you. I 
will hound you to the ends of the earth. Re- 
member nothing can save you if she is not 
home by the 16th. I will have lost her and 
I will make you pay the dearest penalty you 
ever dreamed. Charles McCormick." 

Not receiving any reply to my letter to Mrs. 
Croff I sent her another a week later : 

"Mrs. N. J. Crofif, 1014 So. Osage, Sedalia, 
Mo. : Madam : I recently wrote you a let- 
ter asking your aid in rescuing my wife from 
the vile influence of Belle Black who is about 
to be shown up to the world as the vilest of 
creatures, with proofs. You have seen fit to 
deny me a reply. Now I have a right to as- 
sume you are in league with Belle, therefore 
I want to announce to you both that I have 
written Amy I have stood for all the insults 
I propose to and will proceed to business if 
she is not at home at once and for good, giv- 
ing to me the fealty that I give her and have 
always given. If she elects otherwise it is 
the influence she is under. I propose to not 
only show Belle up, but I will show what I 
have done for you and yours and the treat- 



THE STOLEN WIFE 137 

ment I received for it. Your conduct has been 
as contemptible as that of the Missouri Pa- 
cific company in employing an epileptic in its 
train dispatcher's office. I intend to print full 
particulars — Belle has sent me word that if 
she were a man she would do things to me. 
You have alleged men in your family, if any 
of them want to tackle me they know where 
to find me. Charles McCormick." 

This brought a reply in a hurry. Yea, tw r o 
of them. One from the woman herself to me 
and one from her daughter to brother Will, 
the despised of his sisters, because he braced 
up and made a man of himself : 

"Sedalia, Mo., June 15, 1910. Dear Bro. : 
I am very sorry indeed you are laboring un- 
der a wrong impression, altho I am to blame 
because I did not answer your letter which I 
should have done, but have been so worried 
and agitated over the trouble I completely lost 
sight of my duty at the time and when I asked 
Belle where your letter was she said Amy had 
taken it with her so was at a loss again, but 
as Amy left here with the full intention of 
going back to Chicago as you and she had 
previously arranged, my mind was somewhat 
at rest. If you think for one moment I have 
not influenced in your behalf you are much 
mistaken for I do think you have both been 
too hasty in so serious a matter and hope some 
reconciliation will soon be reached. My heart 
goes out to you both. They are both at the 
farm now. Am not at all well at present or 
would write vou more. With kindest wishes, 
N. Croff." 



138 THE STOLEN WIFE 

No, thanks, I do not care for any more from 
you, madam. You, who never so much as 
thanked me for my attempt to relieve your 
boy, who frustrated my efforts by his incor- 
rigibility. You, who ignored my first letter 
to you until you feared exposure of the rail- 
road company for employing your epileptic 
son in its train dispatcher's offices. 

That they were pretty well frightened is 
attested by the fact that her daughter wrote 
the following to her uncle, the brother who 
is with me ; the one of all the family who has 
shown appreciation of what neurology, at my 
hands, was able to do for them all : 

"Sedalia, June 15. Dear Uncle Will: No 
doubt you will be surprised to receive a letter 
from me, but I write to say the doctor has 
misunderstood Mamma. She has advised 
Amy to go back and I also, as the doctor has 
been so good to her in many ways. Mamma 
has always spoken well of the doctor and what 
he did for Will. I'm so sorry this trouble 
had to come and hope it will come out all 
right. I know this has been a strain on you 
as well as doctor. Mamma feels very badly 
to think the doctor thinks she is against him 
for she is not at all. This leaves us all well. 
Trusting things may change for the better 
and to have a line from you when you have 
time, Sincerely your niece, Belle Carmony." 

Neither of the two letters quoted last fit 
with what Amy told me in one of her spells 




MRS. "G. ALLAN" ROWE. 

Wife of "The Man Gossip," Who Affects "Society" 

and Who Helped Belle Black Steal a Wife. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 139 

of temper at Kansas City. She said then that 
Nannie and her children expressed wonder 
that I should want her to come back when I 
had 'ordered' her out. It shows a two-faced- 
ness all around. Here is another, received the 
very next day from the California sister, at 
Oak Park, Sacramento, to whom I had written 
sixty days before, asking her help, and who 
had ignored me to date : 

"Oak Park, Sacramento, Cal., June 12th. 
Dr. McCormick: Dear Brother: Without 
doubt you will be surprised at this time to 
receive a letter from me asking a favor of 
you, but I have that faith in your goodness 
to feel that you will grant it. I wish you 
would send Amy to me for a time that she 
may have a change and rest from the sur- 
roundings that have wrought such a change 
in her and saddened her. Through all her 
life and ill health she has been so cheerful, 
hopeful and courageous that it must return in 
time with a change. I will take her to the 
mountains and coast and leave her free to re- 
gain all that made her what she was. I will 
promise you there shall be no influence 
brought to bear, but that she shall be left free 
to recover from all that has so saddened and 
changed her since I saw her. I will take it 
as a great favor if you will trust her to my 
care for a time that she may recover herself, 
for I fear it will be disastrous for her to re- 
turn to the scenes of her sorrows at this time. 
Time and change are mighty factors in work- 
ing out good results wfien at times all seems 



140 THE STOLEN WIFE 

wrong. She is now nearing a delicate period 
in her life which may have much influence 
on her. That house, too, will ever be a re- 
minder ' of that sad event, mother's death. 
Should you grant this favor, send this to her 
and greatly oblige yours, most faithfully and 
sincerely, Mary E. Phillips/' 

There is an exhibit of nerve. Sixty days 
after I let her know of the trouble she ad- 
dresses me such a letter, ignoring my side 
of the case, assuming that I am too dense 
to see that they have worked the scheme out 
together. Amy gave the whole snap away 
when she told me she thought it would be a 
good thing for her to go to California for a 
time — no consideration of me or my conven- 
ience or happiness at any stage of the game 
by any of them. They call me "unjust" and 
all sorts of things part of the time and when 
they want something more they all write me 
I am so "good." They are a lot of infernal 
hypocrites. My wife's love for her mother has 
been overshadowed by the vile influence of 
that viper, Belle Black, as is proved by her 
permitting Belle to persuade her to do things 
she knows very well mother would disapprove. 
My wife is either under that vile influence 
or she is vile herself. I do not believe the 
latter possible, but there are no other ways 
of looking at it. And now, when this insult- 
ing assumption comes that mother's death has 



THE STOLEN WIFE 141 

"saddened" my wife, when her exhibits have 
been positively erratic, it is a reflection on her 
intelligence to presume that a woman forty 
years old is going to hold spite at a house be- 
cause her good old mother died in it. What 
sort of brains have those people, I wonder. 

After waiting nearly a month, to give the 
California branch of the family a taste of her 
own dilatory medicine, I addressed her the 
following : 

Chicago, Illinois, July 11, 1910. 

"Mrs. L. O. Phillips, Oak Park, Sacramen- 
to, Cal. : Madam : I have your letter of a 
month ago, written sixty 'days after I had 
asked your aid in rescuing your sister, my 
wife, from the baneful influence of Belle 
Black, the worst woman it has ever been my 
misfortune to know. Your delay of sixty days 
in replying to my appeal is sufficient to con- 
vince me that your desire to see Amy led you 
to assist Belle in her schemes, although I do 
not believe you would contribute to wrecking- 
Amy's happiness and mine deliberately. 

"The facts in the whole matter are just 
these : I have always been good to Amy. She 
says so. I took her after she had been doped 
and operated all her life. I made a well wom- 
an of her. I gave mother and dirty Belle a 
home for three years, paying Belle $10 a week 
for six months, with board, and gave her a 
home free the rest of the time. I took your 
brother Will at the solicitation of mother and 
the girls and made a man of him. I have done 
many other things which should have won 



142 THE STOLEN WIFE 

for me decent respect. Belle, the vile, thin- 
lipped, disappointed chaser-after-a-husband- 
and-can't-catch-one, viper, hated Will because 
she couldn't make him bow to her will and 
as soon as her mother died she began work 
on Amy's sympathies until, in April, she got 
her to the point where, as spokesman for 
Belle, she demanded that I throw Will out of 
the school or they would both leave. Amy 
says I called her a liar and told her to go to 
hell. She knows that is false. She was prac- 
tically calling me a liar by persisting in say- 
ing that Will had been talking to me in an 
evil way about her and she kept repeating it 
after I had declared positively that neither 
Will nor anyone else had ever said anything 
but good about her — it was on one of those 
occasions that I, being tired of the story, re- 
plied : 'That's a lie'; and it is a lie to this day. 
Then she retorted : T am going to leave you 
one of these days and never come back ; I 
won't leave my address either' ; to which I 
replied, being out of patience : 'Oh, you may 
go to hell if you want to.' Now suppose this 
is what she left her home for. Do you ap- 
prove of such an exhibit of ingratitude to her 
husband and to the cause he represents? Do 
you believe your sister Amy is so deliberately 
low that she would be guilty of such a crime 
as demanding that her husband make her 
happy and she do nothing to contribute to 
his happiness? I insist she is under the in- 
fluence of that vile Belle and I have docu- 
mentary evidence to prove it. I cannot be- 
lieve that Amy has been a deliberate rascal 
for six years, yet on the face of the evidence 
that is exactly what is the case. I choose to 



THE STOLEN WIFE 143 

believe it is a case of hypnotism. Within a 
month Amy has told me the most deliberate 
lies, looking me squarely in the face as she 
did it. She has deliberately insulted me by 
ignoring my questions in my letters and has 
done many things that are not Amy. Next 
week you will receive a copy of Mature Medi- 
cine which contains some hints about what I 
am going to do. If you can get Amy away 
from Belle's influence and get her to her hus- 
band soon said publication can be stopped. 
Otherwise Belle not only gets what is com- 
ing to her but if she ever sets foot in Chicago 
she will get a damage suit for alienation of 
my wife. If I did not believe Amy absolutely 
guiltless in all this I would not want her 
back. I would not want to look at her. I 
would have too much contempt for her. In 
my book I propose to tell the entire story. 
If you all can stand it, I can. Charles Mc- 
Cormick." 

Since there has been no reply to this, I as- 
sume the female to whom it is addressed has 
discovered I understand her game, and, as she 
also deserted a husband before she married her 
present one, she will, no doubt, prove a val- 
uable ally to Belle in her diabolical plans. 



•UNNECESSARY EVILS. 

There are some people on earth who might 
be placed on a special list of "Unnecessary 
Evils." They are of a calibre similar to a 
"twenty-two short" revolver — of no practical 
use, but still dangerous. It is a humiliation 
to confess it, but I have a sister, who lives 
in Buffalo, New York, who is one of the who- 
ever-she's-with sort, and she is married to an 
alleged man, of the catch-as-catch-can stripe. 
This couple has been referred to hitherto in 
this book and I promised to attend to their 
case later. Here it is : 

Reared in a little Ohio town, where there 
were few opportunities in a social way, the 
girl went "daffy," when she got into a middle- 
weight class in Buffalo, and she has never re- 
covered her original equilibrium. The follow- 
ing sample will serve as an introduction to 
the details of the couple's connection with this 
case: 

In September, 1906, I sent her a letter an- 
nouncing my coming marriage and inviting 
her to be present. She replied, devoting four 
pages to telling me about a recent enjoyable 
trip to Duluth, to her trials with reference to 
"maids" and "laundresses," a trip to the Pros- 



THE STOLEN WIFE 145 

pect house, Niagara Falls, to "afternoon card 
parties/' to "committee" meetings, to canning 
prunes, etc., after which, incidentally, she re- 
ferred to my marriage with : "I received your 
announcement and will be glad to hear of your 
plans. I fear, though, that it will be quite 
impossible for me to come to Chicago/' This 
made me a little warm, so I wrote her: 

"My Dear Sister : Yours received and I am 
truly sorry you are compelled to lead so stren- 
uous a life as you describe — card parties, com- 
mittees meetings, etc., for I fear you are be- 
coming one of those who have a contempt for 
all who do not affect the 'Club Woman,' and 
when my sister has time to go to the moun- 
tains and take lake trips, but tells me it is 
'quite impossible' to attend my wedding, even 
when she has not yet learned when it will 
occur, and adds, condescendingly, T will be 
glad to hear of your plans,' I beg in all the 
humbleness of my position, to say that I will 
not intrude myself or my plans. I will only 
say that I am a well doctor (she wrote that 
her husband, Dr. 'G. Allan' Rowe, was not 
well), who is about to marry a woman who is 
so superior to any 'society' woman that 
walks, there is no room for comparison. She 
is well-bred, accomplished in ways she does 
not even know I am aware of, and withal so 
modest and sweet that no decent woman 
could fail to love her. If I have misinterpret- 
ed your letter I am sorry — for you — because 
grandiloquence don't go down my throat with- 
out choking me and I am fully capable of padr 



146 THE STOLEN WIFE 

dling my own canoe, with the help of a sweet 
soul whose life I saved after the great Senn 
and others failed utterly and who has saved 
my mentality from the blight of hypocrisy and 
despair. She is the only real woman in the 
world to me and I shall be content with her 
and home. Humbly your brother, Charles." 

Nearly a month afterward I received a sort 
of an apology asking that I permit my pros- 
spective wife to arbitrate the difference be- 
tween us. It was so contemptible and so long 
delayed that I gave it the proper reply and 
our relations were strained for some years. 
In the spring of 1909 her manner of living 
ended naturally in an operation for "appendi- 
citis." Her husband wrote she was near death 
and my good wife suggested that I go to see 
her. I replied I would go if she would accom- 
pany me. She went and they became acquaint. 
The woman didn't die. Later she spent sev- 
eral weeks in my home, recuperating, while 
she ridiculed our methods, criticized individ- 
uals and made herself so generally disagree- 
able I was glad when she took her departure. 
Like many another fool woman of her class, 
she told stories about herself and her husband 
Which were, to say the least, unnecessary, and, 
to absolve my wife from any charge of vio- 
lating a confidence, in repeating the stories 
to me, I will say that it was done at the re- 
quest of the confessor, who had misinterpret- 



THE STOLEN WIFE 147 

ed what she had heard of the sex disease 
teachings of my school (she probably got her 
ideas from Belle Black, the prude) as I can 
prove, if necessary, by others to whom she 
talked in my house. This was, evidently, the 
reason for her telegraphing my wife to visit 
Buffalo at once after she found there was 
trouble here. In substantiation of this opin- 
ion I have the statement of my wife when I 
met her in Kansas City, later. The very first 
thing she said was : "I think your sister 
Carrie is the sweetest woman I ever saw and 
I will always be her friend, no matter what 
happens. You know that story I told you last 
summer, after she went home, about her 
friend? Well, I never told you any such 
thing." If other corroboration is wanted I 
have it at my command. 

While this sister w r as eating my "salt" she 
saw that Belle had a grudge against her 
brother, and when her conduct toward me 
and my system became so obnoxious to Dr. 
Black it turned his stomach to such an extent 
that he paid her little attention, she went 
to my wife and Belle with complaint about 
it — how's that for "sassiety"? They proceeded 
to worry me with it, when it was a situation 
I could not tackle. Belle got her cue from 
the incident, however, and when she got to 
the point where she had taken my wife from 



148 THE STOLEN WIFE 

her home she worked her plans so they would 
get to Buffalo to tell tlieir story, sure of 
staunch allies, because my sister didn't like 
Dr. Black and her husband never has liked 
me, for no reason I can imagine except that 
I have been and am engaged in a legitimate 
business, while his is so dubious that Uncle 
Sam has been after him for misusing the 
mails. At all events, when the opportunity 
offered they show r ed themselves in their true 
characters, by inviting the two girls to their 
home and taking positive side with them on 
general principles, saying that it "looks like 
choosing business instead of a wife," etc. Dr. 
Rowe even going so far as to say that he 
regarded me as a "sex pervert," thus laying 
himself open to action by a grand jury — and 
he may get it yet. I have an impudent letter 
from him confessing he said it. When my 
wife reported that conversation to a mutual 
friend, evidently for my benefit, she added : 
"From what I know and have heard of Dr. 
Rowe I do not regard him as a normal man/' 
The very evident object in publishing this 
book is to punish, as nearly adequately as pos- 
sible, those who have broken up my happy 
home, by taking away all that I hold dear, 
and set an example which I hope will be 
emulated by others who have suffered at the 
hands of gossips and busybodies. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 149 

There is an "unwritten law" in all "Chris- 
tian" lands, fostered by public sentiment, 
which justifies one in killing another who 
breaks up his home. In the same countries 
there is, paradoxically, a sentiment against 
the publication of one's own affairs save in 
hypothetical form. This book is a violation 
of the latter sentiment, and, its author, being 
un-Christian, has felt himself ' warranted in 
violating the first also. Murder never righted 
a w r rong, whether committed by an individual 
or by the state. There is a natural law of 
order which all should respect, and its viola- 
tion produces, naturally, conditions which 
must be treated consistently or the disorder 
will spread. The most despicable, characters 
in the world are those who take advantage 
of their infirmities — or relationships — to com- 
mit acts which, in the absence of said infirm- 
ities, would meet with condign punishment. 
The chief duality of such infirmities is being 
a cripple or a female. There are situations 
when neither should be regarded as sufficient 
to w r arrant immunity. The absolute or par- 
tial control of one's mentality by another has 
been the subject of much discussion for many 
years. The facts set forth in this book tend 
to confirm the probability of such influence. I 
believe, firmly, that my wife has not been in- 
sane for a minute ; but I believe as firmly she 



150 THE STOLEN WIFE 

has been acting automatically under the pow- 
erful influence of a morbid mentality, or rath- 
er a set of them, that of her sister, Belle, being 
the most persistent, because of her opportuni- 
ties, but not more vicious than that of my 
own sister and brother-in-law. All of them 
are very mediocre in every other direction, 
as any who ever meets them and studies them 
will note quickly. 

This 'G. Allan' Rowe, is a 'genito-urinary' 
doctor, with offices at 60 Niagara street, Buf- 
falo, N. Y. Ask any physician how that class 
of doctors stand with the profession and he 
will tell you they are of such natures that 
"sex perversion" is the uppermost thing in 
their minds, then his assertion about me will 
be accounted for. As a matter of fact the 
scoundrel knows absolutely nothing about me 
or my methods of practice and what he says 
in his letter, which will be given in full, is a 
lie on its face, and in its core. Happily I do 
not need defense against such charges and my 
wife will attest it, as she has done already. 

When I learned of the despicable conduct 
of this cur and his wife in taking a stand 
against me, when I had never done either of 
them anything but good, I decided to find out 
why they had not sought to aid in reuniting 
my wife and myself by inviting me to their 
home when Amy would be there, so I wrote 



THE STOLEN WIFE 151 

my sister two weeks after that visit and asked 
her if Amy had given her any reason for leav- 
ing me. I received another of those "lofty" 
letters in reply : 

"Buffalo, N. Y., May 12, 1910. 

"Dear Brother : I am in the depths of house 
cleaning which we usually have finished by 
first of May, and as I have to direct and think 
for everybody, am just snatching a few min- 
utes this morning to answer your note of the 
9th inst. 

"You ask why Amy did not stay longer with 
us. Well she thought a week was as long a 
time as she could spare just now — and I pre- 
sume had her own reasons for wishing to re- 
turn when she did. 

"She told me, of course, something of the 
trouble — which trouble I regret more than I 
can tell 'you — and I truly wish I could help 
solve it so that it would end happily for every 
body concerned. 

"I fear however that I am helpless in the 
matter, but from my observations while with 
you all last summer, am inclined to think you 
are looking in the wrong direction for the 
causes of the trouble. 

(This was referring to Dr. Will Black, on 
whose shoulders Belle has sought to place the 
blame.) 

"Amy's mind does not appear to be less strong 
or well-balanced than at any time I have seen 
her before, and she seems quite capable of 
deciding matters for herself — so it appears to 
US, at least. 

(This was in reply to a question from me 



152 THE STOLEN WIFE 

with reference to the domination of her mind 
by Belle.) 

"It seems to me you ought to be able to find 
the best way out of it and soon, too. 

"I sincerely hope you will and both you and 
Amy have our best wishes in every way. As 
ever, your sister Carrie. " 

This from a woman who had been counsel- 
ing my wife, two weeks before, to have an 
inquest on my sanity, and a lot of other fool- 
ishness, which, if ever tried would result in 
disgracing all the complainants. 

I wrote at once explaining to her that "US" 
had jumped at a conclusion with reference to 
Will and expressed my opinion of such con- 
duct on the part of all concerned. I received 
the following evasive reply : 

"Buffalo, N. Y., May 18, 1910. 

"Dear Brother Charles : Your long and ex- 
planatory letter received and perused, I cannot 
say with pleasure, as the affair under discus- 
sion is certainly a most unhappy one. It is 
one, too, that it seems only the parties imme- 
diately concerned could do anything towards 
a settlement. 

(She tried to settle it with a vengeance when 
she had my girl in her house.) 

"I truly had hoped that your domestic and 
business affairs had assumed a more tranquil 
state, and that for good this time. 

(This was a gratuitous insult so far as my 
business is concerned, as it has always been 
legitimate and successful.) 

"It is rather a difficult matter to form an 



THE STOLEN WIFE 153 

opinion on, and so I am not going to try to 
JUDGE anybody or anything, and as to ex- 
pressing opinions, I believe the less said the 
better, as I do not wish to do anyone any in- 
justice whatever. 

(What a marvelous change had come over 
the spirit of her since she expressed opinions 
of me to my wife.) 

"If it were in my power to do anything, even 
the least little thing, to bring you and Amy 
together again and happily, as well as for the 
rest of your life, then I'd be more than glad 
to do it. 

(She had a rare opportunity when she tele- 
graphed Amy to go to Buffalo, but she didn't 
use it.) 

"But I don't see how it can be in anyone's 
power, as I think she is doing what she con- 
siders best for all concerned — was not able to 
see anything wrong with her mind, except 
worry, which will upset anyone for the time 
being. Lovingly, Carrie." 

After my first trip to .Kansas City, when 
my wife had agreed to return home and ap- 
peared so happy that it was all settled, I 
wrote the Buffalo hypocrite as follows : 

Chicago, Mav 31, 1910. 
"Carrie L. Rowe, 355 Utica Street West. 
Buffalo, N. Y. : Dear Sister: It may interest 
you to learn that I have just returned from 
Kansas City, Mo., where I met my sweet wife 
and won her back, despite the machinations 
of those who have grossly outraged my hos- 
pitality. My success I owe to the fact that 
I have never deceived my wife in any manner. 



154 THE STOLEN WIFE 

have been loyal to her in spite of the face of 
the evidence that she alone was doing all the 
things, when I knew it was only her sympa- 
thetic soul that made her permit her mind to 
be dominated by people who say : 'What your 
husband don't know won't hurt him/ etc. My 
efforts were assisted ably by my GOOD 
FRIENDS Dr. Shoults, Mrs. Wood and the 
Crosby's. Now if I can steer clear of those 
whose jealousy of my success in developing 
the greatest system of practice ever devised 
and making it a business success as well, I 
will have a happy home. 

"It is a sympathetic soul that can, at the 
behest of another, interested party, look her 
husband in the face and deliberately repudiate 
a story which she had told in detail to him 
at the request of that other — and expect him 
to believe it. I just smiled and pitied and 
swore that I will protect her from such people 
hereafter. 

"Happily, your brother Charles. " 

Those hot shots were ignored in her reply, 
but I suspect she has had a hand in upsetting 
my arrangement, because that class will do 
almost anything when cornered or frightened. 
She wrote : 

"Buffalo, N. Y., June 2, 1910. 
"Dear Brother Charles : Yours of May 31st 
I found awaiting me after an all-day tiresome 
trip down town, and was too much tired out 
to write last evening, even if one of the neigh- 
bors had not been in. Without question I was 
interested' VERY MUCH to know that you 
and Amy have decided to try it all over again, 





WILLIAM L. BLACK, M. D. 

Dean, and Professor of Physics and Anatomy, McCormick 

Medical College — the brother Belle hates because 

he conquered himself. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 155 

as that is probably the best possible ending 
to the affair, for all concerned, and I certainly 
hope the decision may prove a happy one for 
all time. Will be glad to hear from you both 
and Amy at any time, and with love and all 
good wishes to you both, as ever your sister 
Carrie L. Rowe." 

In her other letter she expressed the opinion 
that she believed Amy was doing what she 
considered best for all concerned. A chamel- 
eon could not turn color faster than that. 

After convincing myself of the perfidy of 
the couple, and having learned of 'G. Allan's' 
slanderous talk about me, I concluded to 
touch them up a little and see if I could not 
make them squeal. I sent to him a copy of 
the letter I wrote my wife in which I referred 
to the story my sister had told her. It hit the 
mark and he replied: 

"Buffalo, N. Y., June 23, 1910. 
"Bro. Charles: The copy of a letter sup- 
posed to have been intended for your wife is 
at hand and I confess my inability to under- 
stand just what your motive is in sending it 
to me. Perhaps your idea is to create preju- 
dice against your wife or to establish the fact 
that she is untruthful. Possibly you desire 
to cause trouble or misunderstanding between 
others. At any rate I am inclined to seriously 
question whether your motive is a good one. 
If so I certainly do not approve of your 
method. If the information contained in your 
communication were intended for my own per- 



156 THE STOLEN WIFE 

sonal benefit it seems to me you would not 
have waited 9 or 10 months, or until serious 
trouble had developed in your own household, 
before imparting it. If you had the interest 
or welfare of your sister at heart it is impos- 
sible to believe that you, an only brother, would 
have sent such a communication to me with- 
out knowing positively that the statements 
made to you by your wife were true. If the 
statements made by her concerning your sis- 
ter are true, it indicates a most pitiable and 
deplorable condition, and at the same time 
adds nothing commendable to your family 
history. I prefer to believe they are not 
true. However, if you are in possession of 
actual corroborative facts which you choose 
to submit to me I shall be glad to receive 
them. It should be remembered that your 
sister as well as yourself may be done an 
irreparable injury by misleading, false, or 
derogatory statements. So far as the es- 
trangement between yourself and your wife 
is concerned, both of us felt deeply sorry, be- 
cause we thought your marriage was a truly 
congenial one. Nevertheless I am not sure 
she left you 'without cause' as stated in the 
'copy' before me, as it is quite unusual for 
wives to leave their husbands without any 
cause whatever, or just for fun. While I do 
not know why she left, yet if you were to make 
an honest investigation of yourself perhaps 
you might find one or more reasons. If I may 
judge of your character from the degree of 
vindictiveness shown toward your wife in the 
'copy' sent to me, and if that is any criterion 
of your every day, or occasional day, of home 



THE STOLEN WIFE 157 

life, I should say it would not be remarkable 
if a woman would find ample cause for deser- 
tion. Indeed, if I were your wife and if you 
were to say one-half of the hateful things to 
me that you have said to her in the 'copy' I 
would not only leave you but I would pro- 
cure a good strong club and proceed to smash 
it into splinters over your head on sight. That 
is precisely the way the 'copy' appeals to me. 
Of course some things in the 'copy' were said 
after she left. Now, while Mrs. Rowe and 
myself are especially anxious to see your do- 
mestic affairs settled in a way entirely satis- 
factory to both of you yet you must settle 
them between yourselves and not attempt to 
draw us into them either directly or indirectly. 
If you want my own opinion in any matter, 
domestic or otherwise, you can have it for the 
asking, but I have instructed Mrs. Rowe to 
give no testimony — even if she should be able 
to do so — on either side. If your wife wants 
my own opinion in any matter, domestic or 
otherwise, she can have it, and I will give it 
for or against her or for or against you, either 
in your presence or absence, or in her pres- 
ence or absence, just as facts and my judg- 
ment dictated. Nevertheless I am sure you 
can settle your differences better between 
yourselves, if you are both willing to be fair, 
than through the medium of any outside par- 
ties. Very" truly, G. Allan Rowe." 

Isn't that a bird of a letter. After the skunk 
had done all the dirty work he could. He 
didn't know yet what I had on him, or he 
would have played another tune I suspect. 



158 THE STOLEN WIFE 

But I played another card or two before I 
called him. Here is my reply to his oracular 
product: - 

"Dr. 'G. Allan' Rowe, 60 Niagara street, 
Buffalo: I have your letter of yesterday and 
in reply have to say: A conspiracy, in which 
I have found my sister involved, has apparent- 
ly wrecked my home. I have letters from my 
wife since she left and from her sisters and 
niece within the past three days, which will 
prove to any and all people it was through 
no fault of mine. In your own letter you say 
you thought our marriage a congenial one. It 
is my purpose to punish the guilty to the limit 
of my capacity to do it. I have nothing to 
care particularly for save the truth, which I 
shall stick to so closely I can establish every 
point in court if necessary. 

"I have had several differences with my sis- 
ter at different times in my life and have, for 
family reasons, held my peace, except to re- 
sent gratuitous insults. I have done nothing 
during the 'nine or 'ten months' you refer to 
because I did not feel that I owed you any- 
thing in particular and as the information I 
have now given does not appear to worry you 
I cannot see why you should complain of my 
dereliction. I should not have said anything 
now, perhaps, if my sister had not taken the 
part she did in my affair, by giving aid and 
comfort to my arch enemy, Belle Black, in 
her devilish work of stealing my wife from 
my home because I refused to permit her to 
dictate how I shall conduct my business. I 
gave her a salary of $10 a week for six months 
and gave her a home free for three years. I 



THE STOLEN WIFE 159 

gave her a home because I loved my wife and 
her mother; and mother needed her to assist 
Amy in looking after her (mother's) needs — 
I always knew she was a viper, but I thought 
she loved her sister enough to not attempt 
to destroy her happiness. 

"This fall I shall publish a book in which I 
shall .go into details which will, I hope, for- 
ever put a stopper on such characters as have 
butted into my affairs. It may make some 
people jump into the lake or other route to 
oblivion, who have been holding their hypo- 
critical heads high in the belief that family 
ties, or some other reason, such as their 'luck' 
will continue to protect them. 

"My wife has gone for good, for the reason 
that after living in the hell of suspense for 
sixty days, she constantly promising to return, 
yet remaining away, I gave her until last Mon- 
day to be home or my doors would be closed. 
She didn't come. She can't come until she 
explains many matters which she declares she 
is wholly responsible for, but which I have 
utterly refused to believe, because she had no 
reason to do them, and because I believe she 
is under a sort of hypnotic influence ; and when 
you see my story and the letters I shall surely 
print, you will have to say, despite your preju- 
dice, that she has either been hypnotized or 
she is one of the vilest women who ever lived ; 
a mercenary, a dishonest person, an absolutely 
unscrupulous one. I love her so I cannot be- 
lieve it. but prefer to believe she is influenced. 
Talk about 'big sticks,' why, those my story 
hits will be so weak when they see it they 
couldn't lift a match. 

"Living only to see justice meted out to the 



160 THE STOLEN WIFE 

wretches and conscious of never having de- 
ceived my wife in the slightest, I am yours 
as usual. . Charles/' 

Here is what he came back with : 

"Buffalo, N. Y., June 27, 1910. 
"Dear Charles — And so the real true reason 
why you sent me the 'copy' was to worry me. 
Well ! Well ! and you seem quite disappointed 
that the contents do not worry me? Do you 
think I need or ought to be worried? Would 
it afford you much happiness to worry me? 
Would you be rapturously happy if you could 
worry or injure either me or your sister? It 
would seem so. Suppose you should succeed 
in worrying or injuring either or both of us. 
What would it get you? Outside of a little 
fancied revenge it would not win you a friend, 
earn you a dollar, add anything desirable to 
your reputation or benefit you in any conceiv- 
able way. You have worked yourself into the 
false and frenzied belief that your sister has 
'entered into a conspiracy to wreck your home/ 
What sublime rot ! I want to say once for all 
that she is in better business than wrecking 
homes of others. What good under heaven 
would it do her to wreck your home? I want 
you to stop talking such dam nonsense about 
your sister. She or I might approve or dis- 
approve of some things you say or do, or in- 
vite Belle and Amy to our house, but that 
would not constitute a conspiracy. We might 
even discuss your troubles or business but that 
would not be a conspiracy. A conspiracy in- 
deed ! When you say your sister (or I) is in 
a conspiracy to wreck your home you tell a 
deliberate lie and you must not say that again. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 161 

Either your sister or I would not hesitate to 
criticize or defend you at any time, but we are 
in no conspiracy. Judging from your epistles 
one would think you were as pure in thought, 
act and deed as an angel from heaven, and 
that you were in no wise to blame for any of 
your domestic troubles. Truly a beautiful 
conception of innocence. You expect to call 
your w r ife a liar and tell her to go to hell, be- 
side a lot of other hateful things and then are 
surprised that she don't tell you that she is 
head over heels in love with you. If her brother 
Will had a particle of manhood or self-respect 
he would have kicked you clear out into lake 
Michigan for offering her such an insult. That 
is what you deserved. Who ever heard of a 
woman with a refined nature, such as your 
wife seems to possess, being able to live with 
a husband or want to return to him after writ- 
ing her such damnable stuff as you sent to 
me? And yet the 'king', which means you, 
'can do no wrong', are free from all blame. 
'Mirabile dictu !' Why don't you stop writing 
such villainous letters to your wife, Belle and 
others? You speak of publishing a book of 
scandal and letters which will be intended to 
cause people to commit suicide, etc. Oh. 
double fudge ! ! You imagine the whole world 
will sit up nights and tumble over itself to 
read a lot of trash which could in no wise 
interest it. Will you never get any sense? 
While I do not wish to charge you with being 
an idiot or a lunatic, you do and say a lot of 
things they do and say. Cut it out. I firmly 
believe you waste more energy quarreling- with 
and abusing people than any man in the United 
States. Stop accusing everybody else of plot- 



163 THE STOLEN WIFE 

ting and scheming against you, when, if you 
have a thimbleful of brains, you ought to 
know they are not doing it. Investigate your- 
self. The biggest fool on earth is the one 
who imagines everyone is plotting against 
him and who refuses to see or acknowledge 
any of his own faults. Now, about your 
sister, I just want to say that she has defended, 
praised and stood up for you far more than 
you deserve. She bears you no ill will nor 
do I. No one was more happy than your 
sister was when she learned of your marriage 
to Amy because she hoped and believed you 
might be happy. She has been a much truer 
friend to you during the time I have known 
her than you have been to her and I know 
she has always desired to be on the closest 
of family terms. Your conduct in the past 
and at present convinces me that you do not 
desire her respect or friendship. If such is 
the case then so be it. At any rate you have 
been sending her and me communications of 
late of such a character they are not wanted. 
I don't want you to send any more of that 
kind. You have also been making a lot of 
foolish, childish threats which had better be 
discontinued. If you choose you may take a 
chance of saying anything you please about 
me, because if you ever come to your senses 
you may be ashamed of yourself. Neverthe- 
less I want you to entirely leave out the name 
of your sister in your present domestic 
troubles. You are at perfect liberty to enter 
upon any sort of rampage of scandal-monging, 
muck-raking, dam foolism or anything you 
please, but your sister's name is not to be 
connected with it in any way whatever. That 



THE STOLEN WIFE 163 

is all I have to say on that point. I wish to 
assure you further that I am not writing you 
in a spirit of anger but in a spirit of friend- 
ship. If you do not accept it in that spirit 
all right. I do not intend that your sister 
shall be worried or annoyed any further by 
your matters. I am perfectly willing to make 
due allowance for your present disturbed state 
of mind, but if there is any further attempts 
at mud-slinging, persecution or scandalizing on 
your part towards your sister I shall under- 
take to look after that part of it myself. There 
is another thing I wish you would do when 
writing to me, and that is to sign your name 
either with a pen or pencil. When a man signs 
his name in typewriting it always makes me 
feel that he is either ashamed of his name or 
is too cowardly to sign it. At any rate any 
further communications from you which do 
not have your own signature with ink or pencil 
will be considered anonymous and treated ac- 
cordingly. Now I believe if you will give 
careful and sensible thought to what I have 
said you will see that it is meant for your 
good. If not, then run along. If at any time 
you feel that you care to write me a calm, re- 
spectful letter, I should be pleased to receive 
it ; but if not, I think it would be better that 
all further correspondence between us come to 
an end. Perhaps you may be foolish enough 
to be unwilling to believe that I and your 
sister wish you well, but it is true, neverthe- 
less. The simple facts are that life is too short 
to waste it in silly or foolish quarrels. If you 
can get any satisfaction in that way, all right, 
but it is a mighty bad sign when a man quar- 



164 THE STOLEN WIFE 

rels with almost everybody. Respectfully 
yours, G.. Allan Rowe." 

Now isn't that verbosity for you? He noti- 
fies me that he and my sister will discuss my 
affairs when they "dam" please and with whom 
they please, but I must not resent it or HE 
will take a hand. He claims they wish me 
well, yet undertakes to prove by what he 
heard from vile Belle that I am an awful 
thing, unworthy of respect — yet he signs him- 
self "respectfully yours." Here is the reply 
I sent. It takes all of this stuff to complete 
the story: 

"Chicago, June 29, 1910. 
" 'G. Allan' Rowe, Buffalo, N. Y. : I never 
knew one of the 'J. Henry' or 'G. Percy' class 
that was not an ass and a coward. You are 
making good. You did not tell Amy that 'it 
looks like giving up a wife for business' did 
you? You and Carrie did not comment on 
our trouble without waiting to hear my side 
did you? Carrie did not telegraph to Amy 
and get her to go to Buffalo so that she might 
fix up a story about her own amours did she? 
You are a cad. I shall never have anything 
more to do with either of you save to get even 
for your parts in this affair. I have proofs 
of my innocence in the matter, as I wrote you 
before, written by Amy herself and by her 
sisters in the past two weeks. I have some 
other information that will interest you, but I 
shall reserve it for the book I propose to print 
soon which will make some people sit up and 
take notice. You try to ridicule the idea of 



THE STOLEN WIFE 165 

people reading anything I might write. I 
have written a number of books in the past and 
you can't find any of them in second-hand 
stores. As to what you will do if I attack 
my 'own sister' you make me sick. I have 
heard you express yourself on a certain ques- 
tion — why do you not tackle the man nearer 
home. You would better practice on him be- 
fore you tackle me. You have always sland- 
ered me. You told mother once that I am 
the best mathematician you ever saw, am all 
right on some things, but crazy as a loon on 
others. I told her to ask you how you knew 
we are not both crazy on the subjects we 
chance to agree. I hate hypocrites wherever 
they may be and whoever they are. My sis- 
ter outraged my hospitality last summer by 
ridiculing our methods until Dr. Fred Rebman 
called her down. Dr. Black incurred her en- 
mity because she conducted herself so that 
he let her alone and she complained to his 
sisters about it. That encouraged them when 
they wanted an ally in this conspiracy — they 
knew Carrie is of a calibre that she needs only 
hear one side. I have a letter from Carrie, 
three or four weeks ago — after I wrote her ; 
I would probably never have known the girls 
had been at your house but for an accident — 
criticising him and underscoring 'us's' opinion 
of the situation. I wrote her a hot letter and 
I'll bet you have not seen it. I received a 
conciliatory reply. You are all a lot of Butt- 
in-skies, who are as sure to be exposed as I 
am to write a book — and I'll write it as sure 
as Amy does not return with apologies and 
confession that she committed a vile outrage 
on a good husband — I insist she did it under 



166 THE STOLEN WIFE 

pressure from that vile sister of hers. As to 
you and your threats — damn you, just try any 
funny business on me if you dare, you coward 
and poltroon. As to signing my name on the 
machine : I wrote the whole letter on the 
machine — maybe you don't like that — it is 
scarcely anonymous. I will vouch for the sig- 
nature any old day. Only a coward and a 
baby would write in such a puerile manner 
and use such execrable Latin-French as you 
do. As to Dr. Black's remaining here, it was 
the only thing he could do honorably, in view 
of what I have done for his family, and he has 
done it like the man he is — the others have 
done the other thing. When you see the book 
you will take off your hat to it for its literary 
excellence so far as truth goes and the queen's 
english will not be so bad. Contemptuously, 
Charles McCormick." 

A few days later I sent him this one for 
good measure : 

'"G. Allan' Rowe, the G. U. man: One 
more word in addition to the letter you will 
receive ahead of this. It lay in your power 
and my sister's to have used your influence 
to get Amy and me together to discuss with 
you our positions and you chose, my sister 
chose, to 'knock' on me. Therefore you will 
be included among the conspirators. 

"How different from your conduct is that 
of our friends, Dr. and Mrs. S. L. Reid, of 
Kansas City, who write me today: 'Mrs. Mc- 
Cormick called last Thursday and the news 
of your differences was a great shock to us, 
for we have often remarked that we never saw 



THE STOLEN WIFE 167 

two people whom we thought their lives were 
more in accord. While the turn of affairs 
must be a severe blow to you we hope it 
will not hinder the great work in which you 
are engaged'. Now, don't you feel ashamed, 
you cur? The Reids are no relation, but were 
with us for over six months and know us 
better than you do. I'll make you and your 
wife sweat for your parts." 

Incidentally the Reids wrote a week later : 

"It seems too bad you and Mrs. McCormick 
could not get together and alone adjust your 
differences and be happy again. I am very 
sorry indeed for you both, especially for you, 
believing as I do that your very life, almost, 
depended on her. You seem to be sure that 
she loves you, or at least did love you at one 
time. It is hard for me to understand, such 
being the case, how she can leave you thus. 
If I have said too much please forget it. S. L. 
Reid." 

Here were friends of us both, getting the 
story solely from Amy, not being able to find 
me to blame, while my devilish relatives aided 
and abetted Belle in her vile work. I sent 
this last letter to Amy and I learn she sent 
brother Reid a warm roast. I'll bet Belle dic- 
tated it. Amy couldn't do such nasty things 
alone. 

On July 16 I sent Rowe a copy of the 
September number of "Mature Medicine" in 
which I referred to the probability of this 
book and that it would make a clean sweep 



168 THE STOLEN WIFE 

of his class. I also wrote him, as I thought it 
about time : he should know I knew of his vile 
slander about me, and I offered it as evidence 
that his letters professing friendship were 
lies: 

" 'G. Allan', the G. U. Man : How do you 
like the September number of 'Mature Medi- 
cine'? And so you told Amy I am a 'sex per- 
vert' did you? How do you know, you scoun- 
drel? She says she does not regard you as 
a normal man, from all she has seen and heard 
of you. There's more dose to follow, my boy. 
The next time you butt into anyone's affairs 
I'll bet you'll think some first. Charles." 

Ten days later he sends the following 
screed, which is printed to show how far his 
type will go in support of his devilish lies : 

"Buffalo, N. Y., July 26, 1910: My Dear 
Charles : There is no use trying to carry on 
a correspondence with you because you are 
not only dishonorable and unfair in your state- 
ments but absolutely untruthful. The chief 
characteristic of your correspondence with 
me has been threats and villification. As that 
appears to be the level of your intellectuality 
no doubt you feel very proud of yourself. You 
have accused me of 'butting into' your affairs, 
of using my influence to induce your wife to 
leave you. Why you dam fool, what good 
would Jt do me to have your wife leave you? 
You also accuse your sister of urging your 
wife to leave. What earthly good would it 
do her? You cannot name one sane or intelli- 
gent reason why we should want your wife 



THE STOLEN WIFE 169 

to leave you. All along you have repeatedly 
stated that you were not in any way to blame 
for your wife leaving you, whereas the facts 
are, so far as I can learn, that you are the 
chief and only reason for her leaving. I told 
Amy you were a 'sexual pervert' because 1 
could not explain some of your actions in any 
other way. My chief reason, however, for such 
an opinion, was because of what you told me 
about yourself and especially of what you told 
me of the treatment you gave to a certain 
young lady under age who was entrusted to 
your professional care. If you are not a sex- 
ual pervert, or one of the most dangerous 
criminal lunatics at large then what under 
heavens are you? I cannot conceive of any 
other sort of person doing the things you have 
told me you do. But I hope you will not 
think I said anything to Amy about you that 
I would not say to you personally. Indeed 
I said every good thing to your wife about 
you that I knew. Your sister and I both ad- 
vised her not to take the step she did from 
anger or petulance. We advised her to go 
back and try it again. 

[What ! advised her to go back and try it 
again with a man you held the opinion of you 
claim to have of me ? Oh, you scoundrel !] 

"We advised her to forget and forgive. We 
did everything we could honorably to mend 
the breach between you because we were 
deeply grieved to learn of your troubles. But 
her mind seemed to be fully made up not to 
go back, so what more could we do? And yet 
you blame us because she left and for trying 



170 THE STOLEN WIFE 

to influence her against you. You know 
mighty well that you are lying when you make 
such accusation. Why sir, if you said one- 
fourth about your wife that was contained in 
the 'copy' you sent me I do not see how 
she could ever think of going back to you 
without sacrificing every atom of womanhood 
that was in her. Let me tell you that if I 
had been your wife and if you said the vile, 
hateful, nasty things you wrote and said to 
her, taking your own word for it, I would have 
broken your dam neck if it had been the last 
act of my life. And then to assert that you 
are the personification of innocence, or w r ords 
to that effect. Great Goodness ! If you make 
such an assertion a few more times I know 
the Lord will be tempted to send another flood 
and drown you. Now about the use of my 
name in your books, publications or corre- 
spondence, I have to say : In a former letter 
I gave you permission to say what you please 
about me. I now withdraw that permission 
because you have clearly demonstrated that 
you are incapable of telling the truth. I have 
never intentionally or wilfully done you an 
injustice, nor has your sister so far as I know. 
Neither she nor I have 'butted in' (save the 
remark) or interfered in any way with your 
domestic, professional or other affairs, except 
to talk over your troubles with your wife 
when she visited us. We would, no doubt, 
have said practically the same things if you 
had been there present. At any rate there 
is absolutely no secret about what we said. 
Your sister and I are not now and have not 
worked or done anything against you through 
jealousy, malice or anything else. We are 




THE DESERTED HUSBAND. 

Whose "Attitude Toward People" is Disapproved — 

after the Disapprovers have played Him 

to a Finish, 



THE STOLEN WIFE 171 

deeply sorry that your domestic happiness has 
been marred for any reason whatever, because 
it certainly would do us no possible good. We 
do now and always have wished you every 
success in business and otherwise you could 
wish yourself. Why not? We have done 
everything we could to maintain pleasant re- 
lations with you, but that seems to be impos- 
sible. You evidently are trying to pick a 
quarrel with me, on account of some fancied 
wrong, I presume. In view of these things I 
wish to say that I have no desire for any 
further controversy with you or to discuss 
your affairs in any way whatever. If I can- 
not maintain pleasant relations with people I 
don't want to maintain any at all. I have 
allowed you to draw me into much more dis- 
cussion of your affairs than necessary or in- 
tended, but I wanted to be absolutely fair with 
you and explain matters fully. However, it 
seems the more I try to convince you of my 
good intentions the meaner you get, so I do 
not intend to do any more explaining or dis- 
cussing. I have just this to say, and that is: 
My name or the name of your sister is not to 
appear in any way whatever, in any books, 
pamphlets, or publications you may issue in 
the future. I want you to attend strictly to 
your own business and let me alone. While 
I don't hanker for any quarrel with you, yet 
if I must have one I shall endeavor to settle 
it dam quick. I simply don't intend to tolerate 
any blackguardism, vilification, or any other 
dirty work from you. G. Allan Rowe." 

Here's a fellow who wants to maintain 
"pleasant relations" with me and retain the 



172 THE STOLEN WIFE 

privilege of abusing me to my wife and others, 
even to writing abuse and threats to me. 
Here's a fellow who is such a blackguard that 
he libels me and signs his name to the letter; 
winding up with threats of what he will do 
if I "blackguard" him. That would be impos- 
sible. I will run him out of Buffalo. I will 
show him by these presents that he can't 
slander me with impunity and go scott free. 
What a wonderful conception of honor and 
friendship that scoundrel has? One moment 
he admits he told my wife I was a vile person ; 
the next he says he advised her to come back 
to me. The next he tells what he would do 
if he were my wife. By the way, the pup does 
not know what a "sex pervert" is I'll bet. It 
is "one who seeks other species, physically," ac- 
cording to law. The scoundrel says he did 
not say anything to my wife that he would not 
have said if I had been there. Yes he did. 
He said several things he would not dare to 
say in my presence. The coward. Only a 
genito-urinary, "G. Allan" sort of a chap could 
conceive of such stories as he tried to start 
on me. My wife knows me, and every act of 
my life. She is not ashamed of me at any 
stage of the proceedings. She says herself 
that she left me on her brother's account. I 
say she left on Belle's account and prove it 
by her own utterances — when she said if she 



THE STOLEN WIFE 173 

came back it would be an admission that Belle 
was wrong. Yet here is a blackguard who, 
without knowing anything about the case, pre- 
sumes to tell me I am the sole cause of her 
leaving — yet he is my friend ! ! 

Here is my reply to the confessed libeler : 

"Chicago, July 27, 1910. 'G. Allan' Rowe, 
60 Niagara St., Buffalo, N. Y. : Sir: I have 
your letter of July 26, and if I had not in- 
tended printing all of your letters to show what 
a character you are, I would do it now. If 
you think for a minute I am afraid of such a 
blow-hard as you are, it is due you to learn 
that you don't make a tremor pass over me. 
When you say I ever told you of 'treatments' 
administered to a young lady under age, or 
of any age, you are a dirty liar. I shall print 
your letter along with the others and thus 
incidentally show you up as you are. Uncle 
Sam has never been after me for misusing the 
mails. The things I shall show up are matters 
of record, either over your own signature or 
others. I am mentally, financially and physi- 
cally responsible for what I do. You black- 
guard ! you have libeled me to Amy, in saying 
I am a 'sex pervert' ; you have admitted you 
said it; now you propose to back it up with 
another lie. Amy told Dr. Shoults she had 
never regarded you as a normal man from 
what she has seen of you and what your own 
wife told her of you. Take that, you scamp. 
Amy knows all about me. I never found it 
necessary to conceal anything from her. Your 
'dam quick' threats have no terrors for me. I 
am able to take care of myself with you any 



174 THE STOLEN WIFE 

time. I shall also print some of my sister's 
letters in order to prove the conspiracy propo- 
sition. You and your class of butt-in-skies are 
going to get an expose that will teach you all 
the lesson of your lives. I want to illustrate it. 
Please send me a late picture of yourself. 1 
want to show the type. I have an old one 
but it has side whiskers and flatters you by 
hiding too much of your countenance. 

"As to my quarreling with everybody, I 
have never quarreled with anyone in my life 
who did not attack me first. I have known 
many like you, who want to say and do any 
old damned thing they please to me but if I 
resent it I am 'quarrelsome/ Amy has writ- 
ten me, at Belle's instigation, of course, that 
my 'attitude toward people is wrong.' I be- 
lieve it has been heretofore, because they all 
get about all they want out of me and then 
give me the go-by, throwing in such insults 
without extra charge. With contempt, Charles 
McCormick." 

About this time I sent the following letter 
to the head of the Black family at Slater, Mis- 
souri. He has been good to the girls and will, 
I hope, keep it up. They may need it ; but I 
wanted to make some things a part of this 
record to make it complete : 

"Chicago, July 27, 1910. 
"S. L. Black, Slater, Mo. Sir: In the matter 
of the theft of my wife, by your sisters, Belle 
Black, Nannie J. Croff, Sallie Letcher and 
Betty Phillips, I want to say to you a word 
in defense of Will; not that he needs it so 
much, but because I am going to print all the 



THE STOLEN WIFE , 175 

particulars of the outrage upon Amy and me 
and I desire to make it a part of the vile record. 
"First, It has been claimed persistently, by 
Amy, under Belle's damnable influence, that 
Will has prejudiced me against Amy and the 
rest of the family by gossiping about them, 
when I have assured her repeatedly there is 
not a word of truth in her charge. I have 
never been prejudiced against Amy by anyone. 
All the gossip I ever heard about the family 
came from the girls themselves. In her let- 
ters, which I shall print, Amy tells that I 
knew of Will's 'horrible career' before he ever 
came to our house. I did know what they told 
me of him and no more. Yet the girls were 
both anxious to have me tackle the case and 
I did it for Amy's and mother's sake. I suc- 
ceeded beyond my expectations ; for he is a 
winner, not only over his old habit, but as a 
teacher in my school. Ask any of our two 
hundred students who have been under him 
in the past two years. The girls also told 
me of your 'career' in Saline county, saying 
that you had disgraced the family by your 
conduct and finally married a woman not 
equal to your family standard, although they 
like her. They also criticized your treatment 
of her and told me they advised her to get a 
divorce. I told them they would better keep 
hands off your affairs for the reasons that it 
was none of their business and that you had 
been very good to attend to their business 
affairs for nearly twenty years. They also 
told me of 'Brack's career' with John Barley- 
corn, even to the story that he married a 
sporting woman while drunk in Slater one day. 
They told me that Sally was ashamed of her 



176 THE STOLEN WIFE 

mother and did not want her to live with 
them. Mother lived with us over three years 
and I never saw anything about the sweet 
old lady to be ashamed of — I have never 
known a finer woman in my life. They told 
me of Betty's life with her first husband, how 
she deserted him, and of her troubles with 
the present one ; Betty told me of some of 
them herself while here, she asked my advice 
how to secure herself in the matter of the in- 
terests she claimed in the partnership property, 
which was in his name, in case he should die. 
I told her I had made a will giving all I have 
to Amy and suggested she tell him about it 
as he would likely do the same, which I under- 
stood later he did. The girls also told me 
of Nannie's weaknesses and how her husband 
had deserted her. They also told me of Aleck's 
quarrel with them and mother because they 
shipped their old piano to him at Bozeman, 
Montana, as a present and how he refused to 
pay the freight. They also told me of John's 
troubles and that it cost his father a lot of 
money to get him out of his scrape. (I have 
since learned from Will that was a mistake, 
there were no charges filed against John and 
it cost practically nothing.) They also told 
me of the murder of John by his wife who is 
now doing time in the penitentiary for it. 
They lay great stress on the 'horribleness' of 
Will's 'career' when it was not half as bad as 
'Brack's', who deserted his wife and baby and 
yet they have nothing but good words for him. 
Amy told me of your criticism of me for earn- 
ing $150,000 in fifteen years and not holding 
onto some of it. Both have told me how you 
took care of their tax matters and the 'consci- 



THE STOLEN WIFE 177 

entious' Belle ridiculed Will at my table for 
giving in all the family property for taxation 
one time. They have told me lots of other 
things which I could repeat but the foregoing 
is enough to show you that it was not Will 
but they who gossiped, for they told me all 
these things before I ever knew Will. They 
insist that Will has me under his 'influence' 
and intends to break up my school. It is 
• scarcely probable that he would throw him- 
self out of a good position even if he did not 
like me. They demanded that I throw him 
out or they would leave. Who appears to 
you to want to break up the school? I'll tell 
you the job can't be done. The Medical Trust 
has tried that for years and our business this 
year is greater than ever before. We have 
the winning system. In one of her letters 
Amy says I am infatuated with Will's educa- 
tion and think more of it than I do of my wife, 
showing that the viper, Belle, has so worked 
on her sympathies that she was jealous and 
untrue to herself and to me. Will has the ad- 
vantage of you all in the matter of education. 
He has conquered himself, which is more than 
the rest can say, and he will make you all 
proud of him and his achievements yet. It 
is true he has irritated me a whole lot, in two 
ways : One by his 'grouches', which were al- 
ways caused by Belle's picking at him about 
his 'mistreatment of mother' and a dozen other 
little things which Avere none of her business ; 
the other was because, in his gratitude for 
what I did for him, he insisted on helping me 
in doing things I have always done for myself, 
hence was in my way. His intentions were 
good and, while I roasted him for his acts I 



178 THE STOLEN WIFE 

appreciated the intent. They appear particu- 
larly 'sore' because he has remained with me 
instead of leaving, as they did. In this they 
have been encouraged by my own sister and 
her husband, who, Amy says, told them 4:hat 
if he was a man he would not stay with me 
after the way I have treated his sisters. These 
people, like you, have heard only one side. A 
book I am about to publish will give details 
of this case to illustrate a general principle of 
injustice which prevails in the world, whch 
has been aptly described as 'whipping the pull- 
ing horse'. 

"Will knows absolutely nothing of this let- 
ter nor of the contents of the book. No one 
will see the latter until it is printed and bound, 
ready for the public. He would advise against 
it as he has against my manner of fighting 
Belle since this matter was sprung on me as 
the greatest surprise of my life. It lay in 
your power to advise Amy to return to her 
husband. You saw fit to do otherwise. That 
is your business. I will attend to mine. In 
one of her letters, no doubt prompted by that 
sister who dominates her, Amy referred to my 
former wife, who nagged me for twenty-five 
years and from whom I bought my freedom 
finally for $500 and the costs of a divorce suit 
in which we put up a fictitious assault case 
by agreement, that she might have a cause for 
divorce. There are some things in that con- 
nection which Amy did not mention and I 
will omit them for her sake. 

"Amy was happy and I was happy, until, 
mother out of the way, that she-devil, Belle, 
began her dirty work. Amy has treated me 
scandalously, but I do not hold her responsible 



THE STOLEN WIFE 179 

and would forget and forgive all if she would 
abandon that devil and come home. I have 
written to Betty telling her how I feel and 
what I propose to do if they keep my girl 
away. I have had plenty of time for reply, 
but none has cone. They evidently think I 
will not expose them. They don't know me. 
I have nearly two hundred pages of the book 
ready for the printer and as soon as I shall 
have finished it and revised it I shall print 
it, unless my wife returns before her birth- 
day anniversary, September ninth. Sincerely, 
Charles McCormick." 



CONCLUSION. 

All of the principal women mentioned in this 
book have be^n the victims of operations of 
a major character and consideration of these 
facts should mitigate their offenses to some 
extent ; but there is a limit beyond which even 
deficient people should not be allowed to go 
without rebuke. 

In nearly all of her letters (some of them 
signed by Amy) Belle Black has prated about 
my "injustice," but she has specified no in- 
stance. It would have been rank "injustice" 
for me to have permitted her to run my busi- 
ness. It may have been "injustice" for me 
to tolerate her as long as I did. However, I 
have endeavored to be strictly "just" in this 
book. How many of my readers will agree 
with me I know not. I will be pleased to hear 
from all who desire to express opinions on 
the subject in general and on the conduct of 
the individuals named herein. 

Note that the letter signed by Belle Black 
does not contain mention of her brother Will. 
She makes Amy assume responsibility for all 
of that, yet she is the one who made his life 
as miserable as she could while she was here 



THE STOLEN WIFE 181 

— he has not had a "grouch" since she ceased 
to nag him. 

Note the awfulness of sisters advertising 
hatred of their brother and seeking to drive 
him out of an honorable career. 

Note that Amy confesses in her letters and 
to our mutual friend that she would return 
to me except that it would be admitting that 
Belle was wrong and that she will not live in 
the house with Will — therefore she left, not 
because of something I have done, but be- 
cause she is so prejudiced in favor of her vile 
sister she regards her as infallible ; and she is 
so prejudiced against her brother that she re- 
fuses to believe me when I swear that neither 
he nor anyone else ever said a word against 
her to me — that holds good to this day, too. 

Note the sublime impudence of that male 
gossip, Dr. "G. Allan" Rowe, in claiming the 
right to slander and blackguard others and at 
the samse time forbidding retaliation, under 
threatened penalty. Here is his alleged opin- 
ion of me five years ago, and I have seen him 
but once since : 

"Office of the Rowe Medical Company 
"Chronic Diseases Our Specialty. 

"60 Niagara Street 
"Buffalo, N. Y., 11/9, 1905. 
"Charles McCormick, M. D. My Dear 
Doctor : I thank you most cordially for the 
book (a copy of 'Neurology and Metaphysics' 



182 THE STOLEN WIFE 

I had sent him and my sister). While I have 
not had an opportunity to read it thoroughly, 
just from what I have read I find it to be 
absolutely novel and original. I prize it most 
highly, not only as a tablet to your handiwork, 
but because of its clear, comprehensive and 
fearless enunciation of a new theory of thera- 
peutics. It most assuredly is the direct prod- 
uct of profound thought, masterful analysis 
and logical deductions, & its beneficent in- 
fluence will live for a thousand years after you 
and I are dead. From the printers' stand- 
point it is a genuine piece of art. With my 
very best wishes believe me to be yours faith- 
fully, G. Allan Rowe." 

Note that the Buffalo people had no inten- 
tion of informing me of the girls' visit to them, 
when they slandered me and now write pre- 
tending that they have my "interests at heart." 
What re-markable evidence of their friendship 
and good wishes ! 

Note that the male gossip, "G. Allan" Rowe, 
confesses he told my wife I am a man of vile 
impulses, a "sex pervert," yet the scoundrel 
confesses he advised her to forget it and come 
back to me. He is certainly a liar one time 
or the other — I believe both times. I know 
he is on his story told her and so does she 
know it. He "wonders" why the Lord doesn't 
send a flood to drown me ! Isn't that a sub- 
lime thought? It could only proceed from a 
"genito-urinary" mentality. 



THE STOLEN WIFE 183 

Note that when the girls visited Buffalo they 
also went to East Aurora, N. Y. to call on 
"Fra Elbertus" — my sister took them. A con- 
stant critic of Elbertus in Buffalo and a pre- 
tended friend of his first wife. Dr. and Mrs. 
Nield and their little son Walter (whom my 
wife loved so much when he was here with 
his parents), live in East Aurora. The girls 
did not call on these friends — good friends. 
Why? Because Belle Black knew they are 
admirers of Dr. Will Black, her despised 
brother, and she was afraid her scheme might 
be queered accidentally. 

Note that since the text of this book was writ- 
ten Mrs. Roberta Moore, of Minneapolis, a form- 
er student, has told me of a letter she received 
from Belle Black within sixty days after mother 
died, telling her, almost a stranger, that mother 
had left her (Belle) nearly all her (mother's) 
money. That speaks a volume in itself. 

Note that my school and all of its teachings 
had the unqualified approval of mother, 
who has expressed regret to Amy that Belle 
was constituted as she is. She has also ex- 
pressed the same sentiment to me many times. 
Amy knows that mother and Belle were never 
anywhere near as confidential as she and her 
mother were. 

I love my wife. I insist my "Baby Girl" 
would never have done the things she has 



184 THE STOLEN WIFE 

had she not been dominated by overpowering 
sympathy for that unworthy, disappointed 
sister. I fear she is gone forever. I know 
she will not be happy. I know she loves me. 
I shall hope that her great soul will see the 
light and that she will come back and say: 
"Dear, she was my sister and I forgot you 
were my husband." That's all I want. Pll 
forget everything else in having her at HOME, 



OTHER BOOKS 

BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS ONE 



NEUROLOGY AND METAPHYSICS. 

Half Morocco, 350 pages, 5x8. Illus- 
trated with etchings and halftones. 
Postpaid $5.00 

OPTICAL TKITTHS. A home course in 
Ophthalmology, 200 pages. Illustrated, 
etchings and halftones. Postpaid $3.00 

SYNOPSIS OP NEUEOLOGY. 200 pages, 
leather bound, flexible. Pocket edition. 
Pood analyses, nearly a thousand ques- 
tions and answers on anatomy, physi- 
ology, etc. Postpaid $1.25 

McCOEMICK MEDICAL COLLEGE DIET 
CHAET. 16 x 32 inches, in colors, with 
"Key." Postpaid $2.10 

MATUKE MEDICINE. Quarterly, will be 
sent free for the asking. If wanted 
regularly send $1.00 

Address and make Money Orders (no checks) 
payable to 

McCORMICK MEDICAL COLLEGE 

2100 PRAIRIE AVENUE 
CHICAGO 



McCORMICK MEDICA L COLLEGE 

FOUNDED 1893 CHARTERED 

2100 PRAIRIE AVENUE 

CHICAGO 



FULL MEDICAL COUESE, including Neu- 
rology and Ophthalmology^ leading to 
M. D. degree. Two Years. Tuition 
fee $400.00 



FULL NEUEOLOGICAL COURSE, includ- 
ing Ophthalmology, degree N. D. Nine 
Months in two years — one winter. Tui- 
tion $300.00 



OPHTHALMOLOGICAL COUESE com- 
plete in Two Months, 384 hours, against 
140 hours in four years, old school. De- 
gree, Oph. D. Tuition $100.00 



POST-GEADUATE COUESE for old-school 
physicians in Neurology and Ophthal- 
mology. Four Months. Degree, N. D. 
Tuition $200.00 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 

UCT 19 1910 



